dfkrug said:
Interesting. I imagine your new TN is built by the CNH parent company,
Fiat, then?
I am pretty sure they are built in a NH plant in Italy. Fiat is the primary owner of CNH, but its auto division is separate from the tractor and contruction divisions (they also own Kobelco). NH has plants around the globe. Also Fiat tractor was a completely separate brand apart from Fiat cars, but owned by Fiat, I'd guess it is merged into CNH but I'm not sure?
dfkrug said:
The red Case branded CUTs and the Blue NH branded CUTs are still
made by Shibaura in Japan. I wonder, does CNH do any final assembly
of either of these sub-brands of CUTs in the US?
Yes, they do final assembly in the US. Just like Deere and Kubota.
dfkrug said:
I have never owned a CNH, but I would like to, to see how well it is built compared to Kubota, JD, and Kioti.
In MY OPINION, the NH tractors have the best ergonomic designs of any brand, followed very closely by the newest generation Deere machines. Kubota and the Deere designs that are more than 2 or 3 years old have more traditional ergonomics compared to the CNH tractors. The fit and finish of all three brands is top notch. I would put the Kioti a few years behind in design, but catching up fast. The newest generation Kioti cab tractors pale in comparision to the newest generation Deere cab tractors, go sit in a mid-sized Deere cab and you will be very impressed. NH lags in cab tractors, not offering cabs for anything but their largest Boomers (but rumor has it that will change). As for engines, I beleive that Kubota has the best engines, followed closely by Yanmars (
which are still in SOME of the Deere tractors). In terms of reliability (
based on Warrenty Claims), Kubota is the best, Deere is second, NH is third (
as per 3 multi-brand dealers who I know, but that could be different according to other dealers) Kioti pales compared to Kubota based on the local Cub/Kubota/Case dealer who stopped selling the larger Cub tractors a few years ago because of warrenty claims, those tractors were made by Kioti (
Cub 8000 series used to be Kioti DK35, DK40 and DK45 tractors painted in Cub white & yellow, Cub also used Mitsubishi for their 7000 series tractors, but as of this year Cub & Yanmar have entered into a joint agreement to co-brand CUTs as Cub/Yanmars and distributed through Cub dealers).
EDIT: The above comment about the NH cabs was as they relate to the NH Boomer series cab offerings and how those compare to the other CUT size tractors from the other brands mentioned, however as Robert_in_NY writes below, NH does offer cabs in their larger tractors.
