Well, you don't mention how much it costs so it's hard to say if it's a good deal or not.
A couple of years ago I bought a massey ferguson 471 which is the exact same tractor as the 481 except 10 hp less, all other specs are the same. I looked at the kubota
M7040 at the same time but chose the massey. They wanted $1400 more for the kubota but that really wasn't the reason I chose the massey. Several reasons went into that, first being that you're really comparing two different classes of machines. The horsepower between the kubota and massey are similar, but when you get into the specs you'll see that the massey is a physically much bigger, heavier machine with more hyd output, lift capacity etc. It's just more tractor period. To really get closer to the massey's capabilities you have to go to an 8540 or so in the kubota lineup. Granted the massey's a bit more "old school" than the kubota, which I personally like. I don't like all the new electronic garbage they hang on tractors, I like them simple so they're easy to work on and there's not so much stuff to break.
There were two transmissions offered in the 481, a mechanical 8F/8R shuttle and a non-shuttle 8F/2R. If it has the shuttle then it'll say "shuttle" on the rear of the hood and will have a F/R lever on the left side of the steering wheel. The massey's is a standard shuttle, you have to clutch between forward and reverse. You can get the kubota setup that way or with their hydro shuttle that you don't have to clutch. My tractor's 4wd with a FEL and I use the FEL quite a bit. The clutching personally doesn't bother me at all, but then again I grew up driving manual transmission tractors and vehicles so it's second nature to me, I just don't give it a thought at all. Again, to me "old school", simple and basic are what I prefer. Only you can decide if clutching bothers you or not.
Kubota makes nice tractors, no doubt. I don't want to come off like I'm bashing them because I'm not, but personally I feel that their strength is in their compact utility lineup not their utility line. When you really dig into the specs you'll find that a kubota M series tractor of a certain horsepower is a considerable smaller tractor than one of the same horsepower in a Deere, New Holland, or Massey. They seem to put higher horsepower motors in smaller frames. Most of us are used to comparing tractors by horsepower expecting a 70 HP deere to be roughly comparable to a 70 HP massey/New Holland, etc. Kubota kind of skews that equation with their utility lineup so you really have to be careful that you're comparing equal tractors. Around here you see a lot of homeowners with kubota CUT's, but rarely see a farmer using a kubota AG tractor, they're usually running deere/massey/new holland.
My 471's been great, I'm well pleased with it. If you can get a good price on the 481 I'd jump on it, it's a lot of tractor.
