I had to re-read the original post to remember exactly what we were talking about. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
It's interesting...one of the original issues was that 2 JD dealers (hardly representative of
all JD dealers) felt the best way to sell a compact tractor was to bash the competition. Then this thread turned into bashing JD. Kind of ironic, isn't it?
1. There are bad salespeople and bad dealerships for all brands. There are also great dealerships with great salespeople. If you run into a great/horrible salesperson, speak to the sales manager/owner and praise/complain about them. It could be an issue with the specific salesperson. You never know. Perhaps the owner/sales manager is looking for specific examples to present to the wayward salesperson in order to correct their ways. Or building a case to fire them. Praising a salesperson will also provide valuable feedback.
2. If you run into the same bad attitude, take it to the next level of management at the dealer, assuming there is one. If you're already at the highest level, shop elsewhere.
3. All three manufacturers sell quality products each with unique features that may or may not apply in a particular situation. The manufacturers will always leap frog each other in features. Kubota stole a march on the others with the BX series. Great for Kubota and great for the market. The other brands will work to catch up and pass Kubota with their next models which will improve the breed.
4. Some of us live in parts of the country/world where there are various size farms, from a couple dozen acres to agri-corporations with several thousand acres. These farms determine what type of tractor dealerships you have to choose from as well as what their competition is. Different dealerships as well as different styles of sales staff rise up when the primary competition is WalMart/Home Depot selling garden tractors versus the local IH dealer who sells half million dollar combines. This can also determine what brands of tractors are even available in your area which, in turn, determines the resale value.
5. Every manufacturer outsources some parts or assembly. Heck my 2000 New Beetle was made in Mexico! Outsourcing isn't good or bad. It's a way of life. We might not like it. We might desire for the 'good old days' when everything was made in the good old US of A but those days are gone. What matters is how the item was designed, what quality controls are in place, etc. as well as what kind of service your local dealer can provide.
6. Given the same facts, all of us could make a different decision. Which doesn't make one of us right and the other wrong. If I can do all the maintenance on my tractor I wouldn't mind buying out of state. If I have a trailer, I won't care that my dealer is 50 miles away.
7. We all want to know we made the right decision when we bought our tractors. When someone comes along and bashes what we bought, we naturally feel compelled to not only defend the brand but also justify our decision. When someone is about to spend thousands of dollars on a tractor they are bound to read almost everything they can get their hands on, I know I did. This includes almost every post on TBN (as well as Muhammad's great book) about the particular tractor(s) they are interested in. Assuming they do so, they will receive an accurate picture of the tractor.
8. All the manufacturers do market surveys, they all evaluate the competition, they all see what sells and what doesn't, heck they might even read TBN before they design and market a new tractor. They have to. There's too much money involved. While there are certainly exceptions, none of the major brands are run by stupid people, either from the technical side or marketing. The recent spate of JD bashing over the X-series is a great example. The tractor may not suite my needs, or yours, but I know plenty of people who would love to have a smaller tractor, that runs on gas, has a FEL and they have no need for a 3ph. In fact, someone I work with has a JD tractor (I forget the model, but it's a small one, like the X series) that has 4 wheel steer that also has a FEL and he loves it! He's not a farmer, he doesn't have acres of grass/pasture to mow. He does have a nice lawn and many planting beds that he faithfully mulches every year. Hence the need for 4 wheel steer to get around the beds and the FEL for moving mulch around.
9. Statements that contain the words 'always' or 'never' are seldom correct except when they deal with safety issues.
10. While our choices are different, we're all here to assist each other. Most of the tips and tricks about using a FEL to plow snow apply to all brands. A 12 foot bat wing mower wont work any better on a 20 hp green tractor than it would on a 20 hp orange one. Initially, I was strongly considering buying an orange tractor, so I hung around in the orange forum. Then I bought a blue tractor and began concetrating my attention in the blue forum. But you know what I soon found out? There's great advice, and great people, all over TBN in all the forums. We all have different amounts of time to spend reading TBN, so you might want to concentrate on your color forum, but venture out every once and a while and visit the other forums. There's much you can learn and there's much you can offer others.
I'm done. Gotta get another cup of coffee and get back to work.
