Tractor News New Kubota M7 Series

[WilliamBos]

Re: New "M7" Series

AGCO has never used the ZF CVT, they use the Fendt Vario trans and rear end.
JD used the ZF on the old 6020 series.



One huge advantage for AGCO/Fendt, their CVT uses no clutch packs, all others do.

FYI. This is built by Kubota in a new factory. They are using a Z/F transmission that Agco (and many other) companies also use.. but the rest of it is all Kubota.

 

[Paystar]

Kubota's field demos at their dealer meeting were pretty impressive. Focused on the loader performance. Very smooth operation and impressive specs. Once the machines arrive and people get them in the field, I think they will be impressive. Then if they hold up the way Kubotas are known to hold up, and Kubota offers the kind of support system they are talking about building, they are going to be a very formidable name in the mid-range market.

And all you have to do is look at all these tractor forums (even the green ones) and see all the reoccurring problems with the new John Deeres and the lack of support and it looks to me like they are already resting on their name and past reputation. I wouldn't count out Kubota.
Was also told these new M Series are considerably heavier than past Kubota mid range offerings, and that was the one big complaint I've heard about them in the past. That they were too light. So it goes to show they are listening to what the customers want.

 

[Muhammad]

And all you have to do is look at all these tractor forums (even the green ones) and see all the reoccurring problems with the new John Deeres and the lack of support and it looks to me like they are already resting on their name and past reputation. I wouldn't count out Kubota.
Was also told these new M Series are considerably heavier than past Kubota mid range offerings, and that was the one big complaint I've heard about them in the past. That they were too light. So it goes to show they are listening to what the customers want.

The final specs are pending but the number that was being thrown out there is 14,000lbs for the M7 series.

 

[sixdogs]

Kubota is a Deming managed company and has won the Deming award twice as I recall. The way they are managed they just keep improving and expanding. Their company site states they are going to compete with Deere, and they are and if Deere sits on their name they will be in trouble. Much like GM and Japanese cars, look what happened. HS.

Deere --and NH, etc--gave much of the small tractor market away by not paying attention to quality control and dismissing Kubota as junk. Very wrong assumption. Kubota is now the elephant in the small tractor room.

And all you have to do is look at all these tractor forums (even the green ones) and see all the reoccurring problems with the new John Deeres and the lack of support and it looks to me like they are already resting on their name and past reputation. I wouldn't count out Kubota.
...

Agreed. From what I read hear, Deere still doesn't want to be bothered with the little guy and still think they are cock of the walk. Just ask. As well, Deere's combination of having one dealer own all the shops in a wide market radius seems like an attempt to force the buyer into a pricing structure they can't avoid. Customers are smarter than that and I can call one Kubota dealer over another and get a better price if I want to.

Deere is still the big dog but they are a force to be reckoned with and are about to take a serious bite out on the medium tractor market. it will take time but I'll bet Deere is giving Kubota a lot more respect these days.

The final specs are pending but the number that was being thrown out there is 14,000lbs for the M7 series.

14,000 lbs, 171 horsepower and Kubota attention to quality and customer service are what the mid tractor buyer wants. That will pull tillage tools. Lead, follow or get out of the way for Kubota.

 

[Muhammad]

Deere --and NH, etc--gave much of the small tractor market away by not paying attention to quality control and dismissing Kubota as junk. Very wrong assumption. Kubota is now the elephant in the small tractor room.

Agreed. From what I read hear, Deere still doesn't want to be bothered with the little guy and still think they are cock of the walk. Just ask. As well, Deere's combination of having one dealer own all the shops in a wide market radius seems like an attempt to force the buyer into a pricing structure they can't avoid. Customers are smarter than that and I can call one Kubota dealer over another and get a better price if I want to.

Deere is still the big dog but they are a force to be reckoned with and are about to take a serious bite out on the medium tractor market. it will take time but I'll bet Deere is giving Kubota a lot more respect these days.




14,000 lbs, 171 horsepower and Kubota attention to quality and customer service are what the mid tractor buyer wants. That will pull tillage tools. Lead, follow or get out of the way for Kubota.

Not to get sidetracked here, but as a whole I don't think anybody underestimates Kubota; John Deere recently spent ~$20 million to promote their 1 series subcompacts in direct response to the popular Kubota BX series. For one tractor, that's a massive budget. The subcompact market alone is a $500m/year market with around 30,000-35,000 units sold per year so JD isn't going to ignore that. And in fact their marketing push for the 1 series gave them a big chunk of the market. So while on one hand John Deere is going after Kubota in subcompacts, Kubota is now targeting John Deere in the upland farming markets.

But back to the M7, as I understand it, parts and service availability is of the utmost importance for commercial farmers and Kubota is going to have to go above and beyond with their new hay tools and mid-range tractors to establish that they have the level of support that is necessary to succeed in this market. And they know that. While brand loyalty will always be there, if Kubota can offer a superior product/price/performance/service/support combination, they will take sales away from some of the more established brands in the ag market. Kubota has implemented some organizational changes to support their growth plans so it will be interesting to see how things play out over the next 5-10 years. They are moving deliberately and understand that with both the M7 and SSV, it's their first entry into the market.

Interesting anecdotes: In their first year, Kubota reached almost 15% market share in hay tools with their phase one products. They hope to sell 3,000 M7 series tractors per year (worldwide) by 2017.

Anybody know how many 6Ms John Deere sells per year? Just curious...

 

[WilliamBos]

The final specs are pending but the number that was being thrown out there is 14,000lbs for the M7 series.

But they are built to hang the weights on them. Can add wheel weights to the rear, and hang weight off the front 3PT, they will work well. No more worry about being too light.

 

[jayman30]

Here's a great write up and videos of the new M7s in action at AgWeb Take a Virtual Tour of Kubota's High Horsepower Tractor - News | Agweb.com

http://youtu.be/DCmxGvdCUmA

 

[MHarryE]

Re: New "M7" Series

I will pass that question along to Kubota. There was a lot to take in last week and I didn't ask specifically about the M5 and M6 tractors.

Muhammad - I went through the preliminary literature on the M6 series at my dealer's Friday and found no visual difference in the cab, that the only apparent change is adding DEF to get the NOX down. Their chart shows the emissions improvement with each generation and the jump from Tier 4 interim (M135GX) to Tier 4 final is NOX only, no change in particulates. I didn't look into the specifics of the engines other than the M6 is only 6.1 liter and therefore does not include replacements for the M100GX & M110GX. The M5 replaces the next series, has more power than the previous 2 but of course has no power shift. No similar literature on the M7 - you might have got the same individual feature explanation of each part of the tractor that my dealer had but my wife said no tractor - we need to replace our pickup first - so my dealer tried to sell me one of his pickups. Got to give him credit for trying.

 

[Green Power]

The ultimate test will be to see how they hold up in the long run under normal maintenance. I know so far our Deere 6150M is holding up well at ~400 hours.

 

[MHarryE]

I screwed up on my size comments. M6 remains the same, 2 with the small engine and 2 with the 6.1 liter. Everything in the specs is identical to the Grand X except the power ratings. Even though the DEF fuel tank appears to eat into the fuel tank space, fuel capacity remains identical.

I am really curious to see what the M7s will cost to update from our Grand X. It rob ably won't make sense with the amount of work we have and our tractor in that class, the Deere 7720, has only 2,500 hours. It would be nice to have a tractor that more closely matches the Deere power.