First time Tractor buyer advise

[Boondox]

My three year old JD 4044R is in the shop for the third time. It's been there for 2.5 weeks now with a non-functioning cab AC. The AC has been intermittent since the tractor was six months old, but the dealer could find nothing wrong with it until it failed catastrophically. And of course that happened after the warranty expired, so I'm out $1000 for a new compressor and hauling it back and forth. The paint on the bucket and tractor started peeling off in large sheets after three months. Deere's solution was to give me a can of JD green paint. I get numeric error codes that are not in the manual, that the dealer doesn't have in their documentation, and JD headquarters will not reply to the dealer's requests for help. In the middle of winter the tractor went into limp mode because it was due for a Tier 4 burnout but because of the cold the engine temp could not reach the required minimum and the burnout failed. Deere advised me to park it till the weather warmed up.

In 22 years of owning and operating Kubotas I was never left stranded. I had one issue with an L4610HST that the dealer couldn't figure out. Two days later I got a phone call from Japan. In a conference call a Kubota engineer and two technicians (with a translator) walked me through some troubleshooting steps that resolved the issue.

I will never again buy a Deere.

Pete