Buying Advice Demos on new tractors

[Bee man]

Aside from the 5 minute test drive of tractors, have any of you had good luck getting a tractor to use short term? I am in the market once again looking at SCUTs and am hesitant to pull the trigger when I'm not even sure if the tractor is going to do what I need it to do. I know when we bought our last vehicle, the dealer let us have it for 4 days.

 

[jeff9366]

I am in the market again looking at SCUTs

When a dealer lets demo tractors there are frequent problems.

1. People request to demo a tractor in lieu of renting a tractor to perform some tractor task(s) on their property. No intention of purchasing. They return the tractor filthy, after bush hogging for two days, with the fuel tank empty. (Hopefully demo tractor has not been driven over an asphalt farm road on a hot day.)

2. 'New' tractor is 'used', post demo. Neither my local Kubota nor Deere dealers involve themselves in used equipment; too dificult to establish clear title on trade-ins.

3. The tractor models available for demo are never the right ones.
(I only want to demo a BIGGER/CAB/GEAR/AG TIRE/BACKHOE/TURBO tractor.)

4. People with minimal tractor operating experience bang up demo tractors; occaisionally they bang up themselves. Sometimes they permit teenage children to "demo" the tractor.

5. Most people who request to demo a tractor on their property want it delivered, do not want to pay for delivery (four trip segments: delivery/return, pickup/return) for depreciation on the tractor, insurance, nor fuel during the demo.

6. The not insignificant cost of demos have to be in the price somehow. No such thing as a free lunch. Some people will drive 50 miles to "save" $100 in price, AFTER a free demo.


You should be able to do the research necessary to become an informed consumer, plus have your questions answered by disinterested, experienced tractor operators, here on T-B-N.

(There are nearly 4,000,000 threads in the T-B-N archive, available to you.)

There is no perfect tractor. Tractors are all a compromise.

 

[GManBart]

Aside from the 5 minute test drive of tractors, have any of you had good luck getting a tractor to use short term? I am in the market once again looking at SCUTs and am hesitant to pull the trigger when I'm not even sure if the tractor is going to do what I need it to do. I know when we bought our last vehicle, the dealer let us have it for 4 days.

I haven't done so, but lots of folks report having dealers allow them to demo tractors. If you're looking at late model used, there's a better chance you can demo the exact machine, but some will have the latest greatest models to try...just sort of depends.

Some dealers have been the exact opposite and told people that if they wanted to sit on/test drive a new tractor, the only way it was going to happen was if they ordered one...kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[jaydee325]

There are some dealers that will do demo's. However, they will in most cases, qualify you before putting a tractor at your site.

I'm thinking a regular larger customer being a farmer or commercial operation.

 

[ShowroomShine]

I'm a ag and construction dealer. I do demo's.

With ag equipment, you need to either be ready to write a check right afterwards, or be pre-approved. I'll stay with you while you demo the tractor, and I will be supervising what happens. That being said, I wouldnt buy a tractor without demoing it first, so I dont mind.

With construction equipment, we do demo's all the time. If you pre-qualify or are a previous customers, we will let you demo the machine for a day or two. I'll show you how to run it, and then leave you alone. Keep it under 5hrs or so and I'm good. Return it dirty and I'll charge you. The machine will usually return with some scrapes on the bucket, and a little dirty, but its worth it. With construction equipment, it seems more as long as its under 20hrs or so its still new, most people dont mind.


My dealer for my Kioti let me demo the machine. I got pre-approved first, he brought the tractor out on a Saturday. He told me to call him on Monday and let him know what I thought of it and if I wanted it or not (I did). This is not common I feel, but my dealer was great (Cavalier Equipment Cloverdale VA).

 

[sdboers]

My dealer brought me a demo tractor - but he also knew I was serious. I was pre-approved for financing and was flipping between two different models.

He brought me the tractor he thought I would prefer, a bush hog, and a box blade - no charge. He asked that I keep it under 5-6 hours.

I bush hogged my field - graded my laneway - moved some fill - and refused to give him the tractor back.

My payments start next month...

 

[MHarryE]

There was a long thread here regarding what constitutes a "new" tractor with what I thought was a majority voting for no more than 2 hours and pristine paint work. Based on that, a dealer would had a used tractor yo sell after a short demo end with all the tractor models around, think of how many demos the dealer would need if they offered to demo each?

Large equipment customers are completely different. At Cat we use 50 hours as a guideline. Less than 50 hours on the clock and it's new. After all we run test larger units, sometimes many hours, before delivery. Depending on type some of our military units needed like 20 hours before the military would sign off at the plant as okay to ship.

Good luck in getting a demo but remember also that if if you don't buy and a TBN reader looked at it afterward they would want a 10% discount for it being used.

 

[davrow]

When I went to the Kubota dealer while shopping for a BX25D they were happy to let me play in their dirt lot. As for an at-home demo, they said they would do that with one of their rental tractors - but they had no rental subcompacts. So no demo.

Home Depot rents the BX25D reasonably, though, so I still got to 'demo' one. Just not free.