Re: Closing in - Kubota L4400 vs. MF 1540 - some ?\'s
Back to the Kubota dealer today, where I drove the
L4400 and reworked the numbers a bit.
The drive was good - felt like an incredibly powerful machine compared to my little
B1550, of course! Controls were somewhat familiar from the
B1550 too, so that was nice. All in all, a favorable impression. Yes, the manual trans isn't the best, but with the range selector having L and R opposite each other, it was relatively painless to reverse direction. If I had to drive it all day every day, my opinion would probably be different...
Hope to drive the Massey later this week.
But regarding the prices....the dealer knocked another $500 off the 4400, and agreed to credit the full ~$900 I recently paid to have the
B1550 repaired (I'd be trading it in towards the
L4400...) Pretty fair, I think.
I have a potential local buyer for the
B1550, but I'm hesitant to sell it privately in the shape it's in.
The MF dealer will have to provide a very generous trade offer on the
B1550 to get the price of the 1540 in line with the
L4400.
ps - I know the two tractors aren't identical in a lot of ways, particularly the transmissions. But for comparison purposes, the price of the MF 1540 with 8x8 gear trans that I was quoted would knock an extra $800 off of the above priceI listed for the 1540. I will try to drive both trans types of the 1540.
I got a better quote for the
L4400 from another dealer, but that dealer is a few hours away vs. this one being 30 minutes away. Also, of course, the trade-in value would be an issue. To compete with my local dealer, any other dealer would have to offer ~$900 more for my trade-in to compensate for that credited repair cost....
