Owner Dissatisfied With Deere Wants To Switch To Kubota

[RandyT]

At the time he told me Kubota was far better to deal with than Deere. He said when something goes wrong with a Kubota part a factory rep is on the phone discussing what to do to make it better.
he said when he deals with Deere they try and find ways to deny claim.

That's interesting because I have heard the opposite about Kubota as well. I was just having a conversation with a gentleman last week online that used to work at a Kubota dealer in a top service role and he said they would always try to find ways to weasel out of paying warranty claims. My intention for sharing this is not to contradict you or challenge what you're saying only to share that I have gotten conflicting reports from various people over the last two years about Kubota's track record for standing behind their products.

And you could both be correct for the totally wrong reasons. One the customer could of abused the equipment outside of the normal limits, and would not actually be warranty, but people have this mental block that everything that they break is covered under warranty. And two there may of been cases where the dealer tried to warranty a part that a customer needs replaced but the dealer has been burned by the manufacturer on getting paid. Nothing like telling the customer that we will cover this under warranty and then the manufacturer said that is not warranty and the dealer has to eat a several hundred dollar repair.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

One the customer could of abused the equipment outside of the normal limits

That was one of the things he said they would say. He said they would blame the customer for the breakdown or failure even though it had nothing to do with them. He cited one example of a blown engine at 5 hours and Kubota blaming the customer for it. However, I have heard this same story about other manufacturers. What I think may be happening is Kubota doesn't want to foot the bill so if they blame it on the customer then it becomes an insurance claim.

 

[plastikosmd]

Everyone justifies their choices based on biased or incomplete information

it is all we have

 

[RandyT]

That was one of the things he said they would say. He said they would blame the customer for the breakdown or failure even though it had nothing to do with them. He cited one example of a blown engine at 5 hours and Kubota blaming the customer for it. However, I have heard this same story about other manufacturers. What I think may be happening is Kubota doesn't want to foot the bill so if they blame it on the customer then it becomes an insurance claim.

They can say that all they want, but until the customer gets on the receiving end of a repair authorization from Kubota, and Kubota supplies the replacement engine at no charge, and the dealer replaces said engine, and then ships the engine back to Kubota at dealer expense. Kubota determines that the failure was not a issue due to manufacturing defect, even though the customer may of may not of caused the failure. The dealer gets hit with a chargeback on the labor paid on the warranty claim, Now also has to pay for the engine that was originally shipped to the dealer at no charge, and the dealer is also out their cost to ship the engine back to Kubota for inspection.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

I’m pretty happy with my 10 year old Kubota tractor and I run it hard. My JD mower on the other hand has been nothing but trouble and disappointment since day one, despite being a ‘commercial’ model and pretty pricy.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Everyone justifies their choices based on biased or incomplete information

it is all we have

Well said and I agree.

 

[fishdrivel]

I saw this video in my news feed this evening and decided to give it a watch. After listening to the guy discuss his issue with the tractor he then ended by saying he should have bought a Kubota. My immediate reaction was What??? Why? Because you have an issue that needs to go back to the dealer to be fixed? I couldn't see his logic here and furthermore I was surprised to hear this coming from a Deere owner. My impression of Deere is they seem to have the highest bating average when it comes to reliability and engineering. It seems based on all the social media tractor groups that I belong to that you hardly ever hear of their compacts having any problems. Is this really true? Is my perception correct or off about this? I would like to hear all of your thoughts and opinions on this.

Since you asked.....
The reason you do not hear about Deere compacts having problems is because everybody driving a compact is driving a Kubota! LOL!
I had a friend doing exact same work as me. I was always available with my Kubota. He was always furious with his Deere. Isolated situation? Maybe but when the 3 point hitch mounts shear off the aluminum housing on the Deere, I keep on driving my Kubota.
Apologies to loyal Deere owners. Kubota owners tend to be very loyal too!

 

[Paystar]

But, unfortunately that's the way it works. I saw and heard a lot of bad about John Deere when I was set on buying one, so looked and bought another brand that has kept me happy and trouble free. So then you stay with that brand.
It's the same with vehicles. I've had so many automobile engines that were going to blow up and be lucky to make it out of warranty (according to the internet) and I put half a million KM's on them, LOL

 

[fishdrivel]

I think that Deere focuses on the farm equipment greater than 100hp market and doesn’t seem to make an effort in the smaller CUTs. Just my impressions and opinion.

Bingo!

 

[rScotty]

That was one of the things he said they would say. He said they would blame the customer for the breakdown or failure even though it had nothing to do with them. He cited one example of a blown engine at 5 hours and Kubota blaming the customer for it. However, I have heard this same story about other manufacturers. What I think may be happening is Kubota doesn't want to foot the bill so if they blame it on the customer then it becomes an insurance claim.

I think it is natural to want to evaluate various different brands and dealers, although I think that works better for comparing features than for comparing reliability.

When it comes to major brands I don't see much difference. They are all as reliable as they can make them & priced accordingly.

What I have seen is that some people can turn any brand new tractor into an old bent & broken one in a single season, where others buy old used equipment which contiues to work for them year after year without any changes or problems.

So my buying advice is this: if you are hard on machines, better get a brand new tractor, insurance, and a sympathetic dealer. Read the contract carefully, and arrange financing that gives you leverage. Discuss things like who pays for the trailering and if there is a loaner.

If you are considerate with machines, you don't need any advice from me. Get whatever you like. It'll be fine. Tractors can last forever.

rScotty