Come on Guys....

[CSH]

hosejockey2002, I didn't know that Yanmar's were also sold by Zen-noh until I saw one in an ebay auction recently. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other Japanese compacts ended up with Zen-noh stickers somewhere along the line. I too have gotten some strange, sometimes unfriendly looks after explaining that my tractor is a gray market unit. But hey, where else can I find a good condition 22 PTO hp tractor with 500 hours for $2500 US? The snob appeal isn't worth an extra $5K in my book.

 

[hosejockey2002]

Yep, I can buy two of my Yanmar 1401Ds for what a new comparable size Kubota or JD would cost. Not as nice or pretty, but when it comes down to it, function is what matters and my grey market machine offers me more tractor for my dollar. Around here in the Pacific NW, the only thing I could have bought for the same money would be a Ford 8 or 9N with a trip bucket loader (no down pressure) and without live hydraulics.

 

[Tractors4u]

Zen-Noh is a Japanese co-op that sells Yanmar and Kubota under their own Zen-Noh label. There is another co-op, Kumai that sell Mitsubishi tractors the same way.

 

[yaouk]

<font color=blue>There is a definite need for good ,low priced small tractors that we can only fill with grey imports</font color=blue>

The rise of Chinese tractors may pose a challenge to your statement. When I was in the market I looked at the grey option but went Chinese and I am quite happy. They are a formidable opposition to greys. There is a lot of imbalance in people's minds when comparing new to used.

When I was buying I found Diesel Traders were by far the most professional and efficient of all the dealers. However when Midway oferred me a new machine for the same cost as a used grey....? I reckon with your business skills you could clean up if you stocked Chinese. But please please, get credit card facilities so lazy people like me can just ring up and order things.

 

[BillK]

Yaouk,
Thanks for those words of wisdom. Yes we have looked at chinese tractors, but for several reasons have decided to stay away from them at this stage.

My discussions with experienced dealers, indicate that the chinese are still a bit behind in reliability, and whilst i have no direct experience with their tractors, we have had some dealing in chinese engines. They still have some distance to go to become acceptable to people used to Japanese or western world engines.

The tractors I looked at seemed rough in the castings, indifferent in the gearbox, oil was leaking from a new machine.I think resale may be a problem. The chinese tractor population in our area of Sydney is minimal.

Over time I expect their tractors to become more and more acceptable, but we'll wait until some owners like your good self report good results in the long term.

Regarding credit cards. We are in the dark ages with cards as we must be one of the few businesses that don't accept cards,
The main problem we have is certain parts are sold at very
margins, and we can not accept the 3 or 4 % merchants fee on sales of low value parts. We could of course increase our prices, but don't really want to.

We try to be proffesional in all our dealings and thank you for
commending our efforts.

BillK
Diesel Traders.

 

[Soundguy]

In my search for another tractor, I came this close ( holding fingers together ) to ordering a re-branded jinma. I was calling northern hydraulic. I was at the point where i even had the freight charges calculated. Honestly, if I had known about their extended warranties and parts and labor warranties ( available at a small extra cost).. I would own one right now. At the time I was interested.. I only knew of a parts warranty... it was only later that i found that you could also purchase a labor warranty ( and extend the parts warranty ) for actually a small amount of money.
It would be nice if there were some local dealers that carried jinmas... ordering a 7k$+ machine over the internet or via phone, etc.. site unseen is a bit rough.

Soundguy

 

[yaouk]

<font color=blue>ordering a 7k$+ machine over the internet or via phone, etc.. site unseen is a bit rough.</font color=blue>

Very true. But if you've seen one before, and its new, and the dealer is reputable, and you live 1300 ks from the dealer then it becomes somewhat more convenient []

 

[spencer200]

you need to become a member of some association. 3-4% is way to much We are a dealer and only pay a processing fee of 1.87%

 

[Soundguy]

I've never seen a jima... I've seen zetor, yanmar, kioti, iseki, valmet, and a few other imports.

I would love to see a jinma in person... Never know.. might want a 3rd tractor one day. ( might be sleeping outside if the wife found out.... but I guess I could get the tractor with a cannopy right? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Soundguy

 

[Dozernut]

Neil: I saw your plea for postings so I thought I would give you one. I don't have a gray tractor but I have a Komatsu dozer. It is definitely an import because when I dropped the belly pan to do some repairs, I found a couple of interesting items. In the belly pan was an adjustable wrench (badly rusted) with Japanese writing on it and and empty can that once contained Japanese style coffee. This surprised me as they are very fastidious workers. Maybe it was a monday /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.