Scott - That feature alone would definitely make it one "sweet" tractor. At my time of purchase, the flat platform was on the smaller units but for me - it was horsepower versus accesibility. In my line of business, I'm constantly getting on/off the tractor and after a few hundred times of doing this, the contortions are automatic at this point. If the tractor had been a major disappointment to me, I'd probably be mumbling obscenities every time I had to climb up or down. Thankfully, my 4500 has been everything I had hoped and then some. As I wrote before, perhaps a turbo would have been the answer to eke out that last 6 horsepower in regards to the hwy gears.