What happened to Massey Ferguson?

[Hay Dude]

Kubota is the only one I’m aware of.

But Kubota has tractors made for them. Versatile makes their big tractors for now. Some of their other big tractors are (were) made in France. Some have Cummins engines in them.

 

[jyoutz]

But Kubota has tractors made for them. Versatile makes their big tractors for now. Some of their other big tractors are (were) made in France. Some have Cummins engines in them.

True. I was referring to the compact/utility size tractors that most of us on this forum have.

 

[EddieWalker]

My neighbours 1758 has endless problems with the DPF regen, it costs a few hundred every time they collect it. This fall they sent the dpf off for cleaning, hopefully he will have a trouble free year or even two!

Seems odd that the smaller 1758 tractors have Regen, but my 70 HP 4707 Massey doesn't use DEF or have Regen. Gotta wonder what Massey was thinking?

 

[Brendanspapa]

The trend of one dealer owning and operating ALL the dealerships within a certain geographic area is not in the consumer's favor.

There are several examples of that where I live. One company owns all the JD dealerships within 100 miles.

Another company owns all the Case dealerships in the same area. Still another is gearing towards owning all the Kubota dealerships.

You can't shop price at all. You can't go to another different place for service or repairs. Well, not without driving a 100 miles, that is.

The big manufacturers push that system on the dealers. It is simpler for the manufacturer's standpoint to only have to contend with one company in a large area, rather than have to deal with 10 companies who used to serve the area.

For my money, the dealership that stands alone, and isn't owned by a company that has 15 other locations in a protected area will get my business over the conglomerate system they have forced on us.

I don’t entirely disagree, however when I purchased my last hay handling attachment, I called one of the small local dealers for a quote. When I pushed him on the price compared to the bigger company dealer, the guy said that they didn’t get the bulk discount because they didn’t buy in volume like the bigger companies.
In this age of internet shopping, the customer is wise to look at multiple options and find the best deal for them. Now with that said, price is an important factor, but service and availability of parts and supplies are important also. The little brown truck can be at my shop tomorrow, if needed, and my local dealers know that.

 

[Creamer]

While the bigger dealers can get larger discounts they also have a lot more overhead. The little dealer can afford to sell it to you cheaper because of this and he knows he will get the srevice. A lot of the small dealers are hiding under the protective pricing wing of the big guys. No doubt the big guys have a pricing advantage but they do not have teh flexibility that the little guys do.

 

[Hay Dude]

After reading this thread and agreeing with most of you about dealer consolidation, you are correct in that it does limit price shopping/comparing.

Only thing I can suggest is considering buying used tractors?
Then you have the ability to compare and make each dealer earn your business more, plus you have private sellers thrown in the mix.

 

[Hersheyfarm]

But Kubota has tractors made for them. Versatile makes their big tractors for now. Some of their other big tractors are (were) made in France. Some have Cummins engines in them.

Well, thats news to me. Is it just the m7, or the m6’s too?

 

[Hay Dude]

Well, thats news to me. Is it just the m7, or the m6’s too?

M8

 

[Creamer]

The Massey Ferguson company had a lot of issues thru the years and finally got purchased by Agco which gave them a good stable base. Then Agco who had their line of orange tractors from the Allis Chalmers line realized that Massey was a much better brand name worldwide than Allis and decided to consolidate under Massey which was a good move. The problem was that Massey in the US had lost a lot of dealers and Agco is working on rebuilding that network but in a "modern" format, i.e. less dealers but much larger.

A large part of the problem is that there had to be consolidation in the large ag tractor sector because the tractors have gotten so much larger and no-till requires many less tractor hours that there just isn't the volume there used to be. In the late 60s Deere was producing 8000 4020s annually for the US but now 8000 ag tractors worldwide is a solid year.

 

[Long Valley]

Was at the MF dealer nearest me last week and they have a big new McCormick sign on the building now. I dont see many MF around me anymore, but could be because of that old MF dealer that turned people off. Kubota is 4 miles away, JD is 10 miles also.

Funny enough, when I drove to the MF dealer last week, even the farms on each side of them and across the road were running case and deere.