Why are used white, massey ferguson, and allis chalmers tractors so much less?

[Baranx4]

There are a fair amount of them used that are priced much lower when compared to other makes. White and Allis seem to be the lowest. Is it due to parts availability, quality of construction, or just a lack of a strong following?

 

[Bird]

I'm certainly no expert, so you can take my opinion (or guess) with a grain of salt, but I think it's a combination of the perception of a lack of parts availability (they are available, just not as readily available sometimes as some other brands) and the lack of a strong following. All three of those have been very good tractors, and I'd include the Oliver with that group.

 

[Harvey7]

Some people 'bleed' a certain color and it seems price doesn't matter. Just my 2 cents.

Harvey

 

[sixdogs]

I'll hazard a guess and suggest the reason is there are more tractors available than people that want to buy them. I believe there is an oversupply caused buy a tractor "bubble" that happened over the past five or so years. Makers saw Kubota, NH and Deere as reasonably unchallenged and figured to get in on the easy pickins.

Same thing happened in home and commercial real estate, autos, big-box stores and who knows what else. Probably not all will tractor makers will survive and I think the public can sense it. That makes spare parts an issue as well.
Not sure if I'm right on those specific brands but I feel pretty certain on the "bubble" aspect of the small tractor market.

 

[Baranx4]

I'm certainly no expert, so you can take my opinion (or guess) with a grain of salt, but I think it's a combination of the perception of a lack of parts availability (they are available, just not as readily available sometimes as some other brands) and the lack of a strong following. All three of those have been very good tractors, and I'd include the Oliver with that group.

Locally it's hard to find an oliver at a fair price. I've seen some priced higher than the JD sitting next to it. I would like to get my hands on one. My father owned one when I was little. My mother always knew when I was playing on the tractor as my hands would be black from the steering wheel.

 

[Gary Fowler]

It all depends on the area. In Louisiana where I grew up it was primarily IH and JD with a smattering of Ford. Your could find a few Massey's, AC, Minneapolis-Moline and Oliver but there were usually only one dealer for these "off-brands" and they were small and not very well supplied. Usually the price of these were a few thousand cheaper at purchase time, but you could forget a trade in on IH or JD as no one wanted them used and that was when the manufacturers were still in business. You might take the same scenario up north a few hundred miles and Oliver and MM were bigger than IH or JD. It seems to be more about local perception and dealer reliability than quality of tractors. My Dad was preferential to the dollar rather than the color so he bought lots of AC and even a M-Moline once and the last purchase was a Ford 9000. All of them were cheaper than the competition and performed as well as any IH or JD and we never had any issues with them other than the D-17 AC Diesel would never crank properly with starter. It had a 12 volt system and needed a 24 volt or something that would spin the motor faster. We just kept a chain on the D-17 and yanked it off with another tractor. Other than that, none of the tractors ever had a mechanical problem that was not in line with normal wear and tear and could be expected from any brand.

 

[deere755]

When I was growing up Allis Chalmers and International were very popular in my area. I would say there were more Gleaner combines in my area then any other brand. There were 2 dealers in town Allis Chalmers and International. The Allis Chalmers dealer was known for there great service. Now the dealer sold out and the new owner went under and you are hard pressed to find a AC tractor or a Gleaner combine anywhere near here. I think most people like to buy where there is good dealer near by and there aren't any AC or Agco dealers near by.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I was discussing tractors with my son-in-law and the fact that USA really has no home based manufacturing for tractors, with possible exception of the 150hp and larger. I havent really done a thorough research on this, but IMHO I dont believe any manufacturer of farm equipment does a 100% build from US or North America made parts even if the claim made in America. We produce and export food to feed the world, but we are dependent on foreign workers to build our farm equipment for us. That is very sad that we have gotten to this point of dependence for our very basic needs. Anyone have any idea how many mules and old farm equipment is still around, JUST IN CASE.