Steve,
You suggested I can correct you if you are wrong, and I appreciate that. For 2013, January through July, Mahindra Max sales are up 158% in the northeast. The tractor market in general in that area is up about 10%, so we are outpacing that gain by a multiple of 15. In any area, I suppose there are dealers doing great, and some that can't sell ice cream for free on a hot day. By and large, our dealers are doing great in the NE.
I can't comment on price as every dealer can price as he sees fit. Obviously a Japanese built tractor is not going to be cheap, regardless of branding. I suspect an aggressive Kubota dealer can beat a high margin Mahindra dealer on price, but the opposite is true as well. And of course doing an apples to apples comparison is very difficult.
You despise the treadle pedal, and I prefer it. I don't like the side by side pedal, and you do. Fair enough. (It isn't actually the same pedal nor is it the same HST unit, but it is similar and I will grant that was your meaning.) You could also say you prefer orange and Mahindra should have "upgraded" to orange paint and you despise the red and see that as a failure. Well, I like red. And we do not expect everyone to prefer Mahindra. Just like Chevy and Ford, it is good we have options. If you like a side by side pedal, the Max is not for you.
I respect Kioti. You won't find me beating up on them. They seem to make a solid tractor and I have wondered why they do not have more market share. I like Kubota as well, and certainly respect their market share and concern for quality. And who does not like JD? I own an old JD 420 crawler and it is cool. So I am a Mahindra dealer and Mahindra fan, but not blindly so.
I also have a track loader at home, a Takeuchi TL130. All the (huge) pins have bushings, the lines are all steel with minimal hose, it is overbuilt every where and I really like it. It is a construction rig that can be used like it was stolen for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. I don't expect a SCUT or a CUT to be built like that. And it would be too heavy if it were. While I too like big pins and bushings and hard lines, I can more appreciate a well designed, well balanced, well tested approach to give us quality without overkill. You can recall that there were serious issues with a particular tractor brand (not Mahindra) a few years ago with the loaders cracking on the cross tube that connected the 2 loader arms due to poor design or materials. They may have had bushings and hard lines, but were failing at a huge rate. So while what you say has some merit, we appreciate KMW and feel they build a nice loader. It is always a balance between features, specs, duty cycle design and price.