I gotta agree with Gerard on this one. If resale is a huge concern for you (i.e. that is perhaps the tiebreaker in your decision process), maybe you don't need to shell out that much money just to pay for a name after all.
I love the name-brand chest-thumping that is going on and is quite the clever way to essentially bash all other brands without actually coming out and doing it. If the guys that paid the extra money to get their "tried and true" unit need to try to run down the competition to try to justify why they more or less wasted their money to get and equal or inferior tractor to the alleged 2nd tier manufacturers, then that is their business. I had commented about the lack of difference in all of the tractor manufacturers at a recent ag show I went to - there really isn't much difference between the alleged Big 3 and the Korean/Indian tractors - in my humble opinion.
The reference to Ebay as far as the sale of used tractors, particularly non-name brand, is a little stilted. I haven't seen very many Big 3 tractors sell on Ebay, so to use that as a resale example really isn't that solid. I've asked before, and yet to get a response, where exactly are these used 2nd tier tractors (Long, Kioti, Mahindra, Montana, etc) being sold for pennies on the dollar and the owners taking a pounding on resale? I see very few in the local trader papers, Fastline, etc. Heck, I might get me another of these inferior tractors since I'll be able to pick it up for a song.
And as far as dealerships go, in my immediate area, we have had a Kubota and New Holland dealership close, and a John Deere dealership is on it's way to closing by mid-year. The New Holland dealership was only recently picked up by Little Tractor (but he's one of those guys who sells Kiotis, so I probably wouldn't want to get a NH from him - it's probably got Kioti Kooties). There has also been another Kioti dealer open; a Montana dealer open; and the Mahindra dealership has grown quite a bit (the JD dealership keeps about 6 new tractors on his lot; the Kioti and Mahindra dealers keep about 20 or 30 new tractors.
If you feel like you gotta spend the bucks, that's cool...hey man, that's what America is all about. And if you want to trumpet your opinion about the alleged superiority of the Big 3 versus all other comers, that's great too....just don't expect everybody to agree.
I love the name-brand chest-thumping that is going on and is quite the clever way to essentially bash all other brands without actually coming out and doing it. If the guys that paid the extra money to get their "tried and true" unit need to try to run down the competition to try to justify why they more or less wasted their money to get and equal or inferior tractor to the alleged 2nd tier manufacturers, then that is their business. I had commented about the lack of difference in all of the tractor manufacturers at a recent ag show I went to - there really isn't much difference between the alleged Big 3 and the Korean/Indian tractors - in my humble opinion.
The reference to Ebay as far as the sale of used tractors, particularly non-name brand, is a little stilted. I haven't seen very many Big 3 tractors sell on Ebay, so to use that as a resale example really isn't that solid. I've asked before, and yet to get a response, where exactly are these used 2nd tier tractors (Long, Kioti, Mahindra, Montana, etc) being sold for pennies on the dollar and the owners taking a pounding on resale? I see very few in the local trader papers, Fastline, etc. Heck, I might get me another of these inferior tractors since I'll be able to pick it up for a song.
And as far as dealerships go, in my immediate area, we have had a Kubota and New Holland dealership close, and a John Deere dealership is on it's way to closing by mid-year. The New Holland dealership was only recently picked up by Little Tractor (but he's one of those guys who sells Kiotis, so I probably wouldn't want to get a NH from him - it's probably got Kioti Kooties). There has also been another Kioti dealer open; a Montana dealer open; and the Mahindra dealership has grown quite a bit (the JD dealership keeps about 6 new tractors on his lot; the Kioti and Mahindra dealers keep about 20 or 30 new tractors.
If you feel like you gotta spend the bucks, that's cool...hey man, that's what America is all about. And if you want to trumpet your opinion about the alleged superiority of the Big 3 versus all other comers, that's great too....just don't expect everybody to agree.
