Dealers Used Tractor Turnover

   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #1  

Pacesetter300

Silver Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2002
Messages
247
Location
mid- Maine
Tractor
Century 3045
I'm pretty much settled on what I'm going to buy for a new tractor - HOWEVER - If some "steal of a deal" comes along. I might be tempted. Plus, it's an excuse to shop for tractors, which for me is fun and educational.
Question is: How long does a dealer keep a used unit in inventory before it gets stale? I've run across a few nice used tractors of varouus makes that dealers have had in inventory for a year or so, yet they don't seem inclined to deal in the same manner a car dealer would. Like a car dealer, after a certain time, it must cost to have it sit on the lot every month. I just find this strange. Anyone else run into this? Does anyone have an explanation? I guess it's evident I've bought a lot more cars and trucks than tractors.
Thanks for looking


Pacesetter300
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #2  
If he's in them right, it might be worth it to hang on to them to keep lots of interest in his place. Then, again, a some dealers might not be the sharpest businessmen.

If the margins are low, you sell a lot, and have more potential headaches. Raise the margins, sell less, less potential problems.

Maybe he can't figure out if he's sellin', or collectin'

Maybe he doesn' like you - Nah!
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover
  • Thread Starter
#3  
This is three or four dealers - not just one. Besides everybody likes me until they get to know me! Ask the ex wives!!
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #4  
Some of the dealers I know have what are known as "Lease Return" tractors on their lots. These are leased out for one season typically and then returned to the dealer. The dealer does not own these tractors, they are owned by the manufacturer (or finance company). they are only moved into the dealer inventory when they are sold.
This may be the case in th eones you are looking at.

Andy
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #5  
a lot depends on what kind of deal the dealer gave the guy that traded that used tractor, in other word he might not have too much room to deal or he will lose money.
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #6  
As someone in a similar business I can tell you there's no 'standard' for something like that. The fact is that no one wants to lose money on something and, if they are going to do that, they're more likely to take the piece to an auction where the sale is relatively anonymous and the ultimate in 'as-is, where-is' for them. There's no reason anyone would want to sell something at a loss AND be responsible for problems, too.

Personally, if I'm tired of looking at a particular piece I'm going to take it to the auction and bring home a check rather than do all the work required to sell it to a retail buyer for the same (or even nearly the same) money.

From where I'm sitting this isn't strange at all. It's even less so with tractors where model years don't play nearly so important a role as hours and condition. Think about it this way. Which is worth more? A 500 hour 1996 Deere 1050 or a 1997 Deere 1050 with the same hours? There's not much if any difference, is there? Well, if a dealer can keep a tractor for a year and not have it depreciate any more than that, why wouldn't he?
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #7  
In my area I found that if a tractor is on the lot more than two months it is sent to a local auction of farm equipment. You can't blame the dealers either because many times the tractor sells for more at the auction than the dealer had on it. If it goes at the auction, there is no guarantee for the dealer to worry about.

Several fellows around here buy a new tractor and use it for three years and then put it at the farm equipment consignment auction. If it sells they just buy another new one and do it all over again. I looked for a 4300 HST for over a year at the auctions and private sales. Most had 200 to 600 hrs on them and I could buy new for about $4000 more and did. My tractor is a year and a half old and I may try to sell it as the warrantee runs out. If I can move to a new unit for $4000, it would make sense.
 
   / Dealers Used Tractor Turnover #8  
You have touched an interesting subject that really defies logic and norms. I sell import tractors but first was a consumer in the market place you speak of. I live in a farning area and the JD, Kubota, and NH dealers appear to collect trade-in tractors to adorn their lots. A year was not too long for them to keep a trade-in. Their business is selling new
tractors and used tractors were almost a nuisance.

However, 90 miles south, a Kubota/NH dealer had 30 plus people on a list waiting for a used compact tractor to come into the dealership. He called the first two on the list and the first to arrive invariably, he says, bought the tractor.

He believed in the fast nickel over the slow dime.

I decided to go after the first two on his list, if possible, and the other 28 as probable. I buy used tractors right and sell them right and outsell the three in my town combined. They can't figure it out. They can't get anyone to drive 90 miles to them when people drive 400 miles to get a good tractor at a fair price from me.

That's what makes for business I guess. They sell new but not used and I sell used and not new.
 
 
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