yanmar selection help

[California]

I assumed buying a U.S. market Yanmar would be wise for parts inventory however I have read that a grey market 1610D (same as a 226D?) has a better parts supply in the U.S. than the 226D made for the U.S. market!!

Getting back to the original poster - I've owned a US Yanmar since 2003. In my experience, any Yanmar is an Internet tractor. If you need something then your source is mailorder, not local. Just like if you bought a Dell computer, or any of the other consumer products supported principally via website.

The dealers who participate here (plus a few others) can provide parts support for probably any maintenance item and nearly anything you could break. There are far more grays than original Yanmar-USA tractors here now, and there is an active replica parts industry supporting them.

Before I bought my tractor I looked in the yellow pages and found the local Deere dealer still advertised his Yanmar Service franchise. But when I went there he about ran me off. He said he hadn't see one in years and after a couple of times ordering the wrong parts, refused to take calls regarding the gray market versions. He said he still had shop manuals and could order parts, but it sounded like this would be on-the-job training for his mechanics at my expense. I haven't been back.

In contrast I've gotten excellent service from some of the participants here. The only exception was an order that apparently got forgotten - after an exchange of emails, then a month of no reply, I ordered the part from another participant and it arrived promptly. (You know who you are )

I think overall support for old Yanmars is as good as any other brand sold here, of similar age. They certainly aren't orphans. And they are near indestructible. Don't be concerned about support if you can do minor repairs and can line up someone local if to do the labor if you ever need anything major.