20% off would be a great discount these days. JD must be careful not to devalue these machines too much with its promotions (a' la the major car companies). Also, JD has actively been trying to combine or shut down many "mom and pop" dealers into larger entities to streamline the supply and pricing process (and make life easier for the corporate office). This in my opinion limits competition in pricing to some degree. Combined with the general stability in retail pricing (JD actually reduced retail prices on compact tractors about one year ago--not sure if still that way) the margins on the machine sales for the dealers has been reduced somewhat. What does this mean?? To me, it means despite slowing sales across the board, the local dealer might not be able to offer the consumer the same deep discounts of past months/years. I would say these days a 15% discount would be really great; more than that means one ought to buy the machine from that dealer; unless of course the cost of the fuel to pick up a machine that is a distance away nullifies any cost savings on the tractor itself.
John M