Hi Mark,
I am having a different experience with MB tractor than what you have described. They appear to be over $3000 higher than what everyone else seems to be paying on TBN. I can understand $1000 extra profit, but $3000 extra profit seems a little steep.
I am looking at a TC40D and on TBN the average base price with loader is around $20,500. At MB they are quoting me $23,500 (the difference gets worse as I add options to the tractor).
I was just curious who you were dealing with, and what kind of deal you were able to make with them that allowed you to feel like you were getting a fair deal.
I would love to do business locally, but I also want to feel like I am getting a fair deal. My wife works as a controller for a commercial truck dealership where the average price is over $100,000 - and they only get about 4% on a sale. I believe that the two businesses are probably very similar in many aspects - and I would bet that the tractor dealerships sell more than four $25,000 tractors to every truck sold. These tractor dealerships should behave similarly and charge the same price that the rest of the country gets.