0% doesn't always mean 0%

[lambchop]

I had a very similar experience at my local Mahindra dealership. I received what I thought was a fair price for the 30 hp tractor but as soon as I mentioned that I wanted the 0% financing which was advertised on the posters at the dealership, the price went up about $1500. In addition, I had to come up with 20% down even though I have a very good credit rating.

At this point, I was somewhat irritated and decided to look at other brands. The Kubota dealer gave me 0% upfront in the price and I only needed a 10% down payment. The salesman said Kubota tractors hold their resale value whereas the Mahindra's don't, thus the difference in down payments. He then took me out to lot and showed me two used Mahindra's that were less than 4 years old but had turned pink and looked about 10 years old.

He further informed me that Kubota builds all their tractors but Mahindra imports tractors from India, Japan, Korea and China. Kubota also makes their own major attachments such as loaders, backhoes and mowers whereas Mahindra relies upon OEM's to provide their attachments.

I am planning on keeping my tractor for 7-10 years and receiving service down the road is important. Kubota has been in the area for over 30 years whereas there have been 3-4 Mahindra dealers that have either dropped the line or gone out of business. I did like the 5 year warranty offered by Mahindra but found out that the last two years of the warranty were from a third party and not Mahindra and I wasn't comfortable about that.

I am very happy I bought the Kubota over the Mahindra as I feel my tractor will hold its value and service and parts will be available when and if I need them.

 

[LAWALLSTRACTOR]

I had a very similar experience at my local Mahindra dealership. I received what I thought was a fair price for the 30 hp tractor but as soon as I mentioned that I wanted the 0% financing which was advertised on the posters at the dealership, the price went up about $1500. In addition, I had to come up with 20% down even though I have a very good credit rating.

At this point, I was somewhat irritated and decided to look at other brands. The Kubota dealer gave me 0% upfront in the price and I only needed a 10% down payment. The salesman said Kubota tractors hold their resale value whereas the Mahindra's don't, thus the difference in down payments. He then took me out to lot and showed me two used Mahindra's that were less than 4 years old but had turned pink and looked about 10 years old.

He further informed me that Kubota builds all their tractors but Mahindra imports tractors from India, Japan, Korea and China. Kubota also makes their own major attachments such as loaders, backhoes and mowers whereas Mahindra relies upon OEM's to provide their attachments.

I am planning on keeping my tractor for 7-10 years and receiving service down the road is important. Kubota has been in the area for over 30 years whereas there have been 3-4 Mahindra dealers that have either dropped the line or gone out of business. I did like the 5 year warranty offered by Mahindra but found out that the last two years of the warranty were from a third party and not Mahindra and I wasn't comfortable about that.

I am very happy I bought the Kubota over the Mahindra as I feel my tractor will hold its value and service and parts will be available when and if I need them.

Lambchop,
30 years ago Kubota went through the same growing pains that Mahindra USA is going through, but they have overcome it as Mahindra is overcoming it today. Also there is some truth in what your Kubota told you about Mahindra, but there is also plenty in what he told you that isn't truthful. And I have seen Kubota's that were stored outside that weren't so pretty either.

 

[sweettractors]

If you get 0%, you can bet that has been covered in the product being sold. Ken Sweet

 

[DavesTractor]

I had a very similar experience at my local Mahindra dealership. I received what I thought was a fair price for the 30 hp tractor but as soon as I mentioned that I wanted the 0% financing which was advertised on the posters at the dealership, the price went up about $1500. In addition, I had to come up with 20% down even though I have a very good credit rating.

At this point, I was somewhat irritated and decided to look at other brands. The Kubota dealer gave me 0% upfront in the price and I only needed a 10% down payment. The salesman said Kubota tractors hold their resale value whereas the Mahindra's don't, thus the difference in down payments. He then took me out to lot and showed me two used Mahindra's that were less than 4 years old but had turned pink and looked about 10 years old.

He further informed me that Kubota builds all their tractors but Mahindra imports tractors from India, Japan, Korea and China. Kubota also makes their own major attachments such as loaders, backhoes and mowers whereas Mahindra relies upon OEM's to provide their attachments.

I am planning on keeping my tractor for 7-10 years and receiving service down the road is important. Kubota has been in the area for over 30 years whereas there have been 3-4 Mahindra dealers that have either dropped the line or gone out of business. I did like the 5 year warranty offered by Mahindra but found out that the last two years of the warranty were from a third party and not Mahindra and I wasn't comfortable about that.

I am very happy I bought the Kubota over the Mahindra as I feel my tractor will hold its value and service and parts will be available when and if I need them.

You had a good Kubota salesman and a poor Mahindra one, but some of what he said is true. Kubota is to be admired in many ways. But Kubotas fade if left in the sun and never cared for, they just fade to light orange. Red fades to pink...unfortunately. Mahindra did reformulate the paint for the tractors and loaders about 4 years ago and we think the fading will be much, much better. After all, all red cars aren't pink in 5 years.

On the 0%, we can do 0% with nothing down in many circumstances, but the more you finance at 0%, the more costly it is in the background, so some dealers set a higher down payment. It has nothing to do with resale value, that made me chuckle.

I guess burying the 0% into the price and not offering any discounts for the buyer with $100 bills feels better to some.

The good news is that Kubota is a good tractor, so even though the Kubota dealer feed you some nonsense, you will still be fine.

The third party warranty deal is invisible to the dealers. We submit the claim via Mahindra and it is all handled just like the first 3 years, so if there is some re-insurance in the background for the last two years, who cares?

And as far as attachments, we can put Kobota attachments up against Mahindra's OEM units made by Bradco, KMW and Amerequip without worry, and these are made in the USA. There are a lot of USA workers glad that Mahindra buys a lot of USA made product for their tractors. Is it cool that Kubota builds a lot of their own? I think so, but it does not mean they are better.

 

[teg]

You had a good Kubota salesman...

*maybe*

...The Kubota dealer gave me 0% upfront in the price and I only needed a 10% down payment...

Lambchop, when did you have this buying experience??? There was a time where kubota didn't give a discount for cash... we wanted to use cash in 2005 and it didn't matter how we were paying for it, no discount (don't know if it was add in - I know it wasn't cheap ). So we took the 0% on about half the cost.

I don't think I could afford to buy the same tractor now. A friend of mine had bought a kubota since he could afford the payments at the time. It's paid off and he doesn't use it much - but plans to in the future!!!

 

[MAX28XL]

HI what credit score do you need with Agricredit ?

 

[DavesTractor]

HI what credit score do you need with Agricredit ?

I don't think they have an official answer, because if you put 50% down and financed for 24 months they would probably take a lower score then $0 down and 60 months.

700's are generally fine, 500's aren't. Not sure where the break is.

 

[lambchop]

Lambchop,
30 years ago Kubota went through the same growing pains that Mahindra USA is going through, but they have overcome it as Mahindra is overcoming it today. Also there is some truth in what your Kubota told you about Mahindra, but there is also plenty in what he told you that isn't truthful. And I have seen Kubota's that were stored outside that weren't so pretty either.

Hello Galen,

Thanks for your input. I am sure any piece of equipment that sits outside for years will fade. Kubota orange fades to light orange whereas the Mahindra red turns pink. My concern about the new Mahindra tractors on the dealer's lot was that the loaders were already pink and the tractors were a lighter shade of red but hadn't turned pink yet. I have a "barn" so it didn't make sense to purchase a weathered tractor. Most likely I will have this tractor for 10 years or more and from a service and parts perspective, I felt that the local Kubota dealer will be in business to service my tractor if the need arises. The Kubota salesman did not say anything negative about the Mahindra and he encouraged me to do my homework so that I was comfortable. He did correctly point out that Kubota manufactures their own tractors and Mahindra is in fact selling a Mitsubishi built product. After the 0% interest misunderstanding on the Mahindra price and reading about Mahindra's legal issues and lawsuits on their trucks, I think I made the right choice.

 

[lambchop]

*maybe*
Lambchop, when did you have this buying experience??? There was a time where kubota didn't give a discount for cash... we wanted to use cash in 2005 and it didn't matter how we were paying for it, no discount (don't know if it was add in - I know it wasn't cheap ). So we took the 0% on about half the cost.

I don't think I could afford to buy the same tractor now. A friend of mine had bought a kubota since he could afford the payments at the time. It's paid off and he doesn't use it much - but plans to in the future!!!

Hello TEG,

I purchased the tractor around March 10th of 2012.

 

[lambchop]

You had a good Kubota salesman and a poor Mahindra one, but some of what he said is true. Kubota is to be admired in many ways. But Kubotas fade if left in the sun and never cared for, they just fade to light orange. Red fades to pink...unfortunately. Mahindra did reformulate the paint for the tractors and loaders about 4 years ago and we think the fading will be much, much better. After all, all red cars aren't pink in 5 years.

On the 0%, we can do 0% with nothing down in many circumstances, but the more you finance at 0%, the more costly it is in the background, so some dealers set a higher down payment. It has nothing to do with resale value, that made me chuckle.

I guess burying the 0% into the price and not offering any discounts for the buyer with $100 bills feels better to some.

The good news is that Kubota is a good tractor, so even though the Kubota dealer feed you some nonsense, you will still be fine.

The third party warranty deal is invisible to the dealers. We submit the claim via Mahindra and it is all handled just like the first 3 years, so if there is some re-insurance in the background for the last two years, who cares?

And as far as attachments, we can put Kobota attachments up against Mahindra's OEM units made by Bradco, KMW and Amerequip without worry, and these are made in the USA. There are a lot of USA workers glad that Mahindra buys a lot of USA made product for their tractors. Is it cool that Kubota builds a lot of their own? I think so, but it does not mean they are better.

Hello Dave's Tractor,

Thank you for the information. The Kubota salesman encouraged me to do my research on Kubota and Mahindra so I did. From what I could determine, Kubota builds the majority of the their tractors in Japan and some models in Thailand at a Kubota factory they recently opened. I don't believe Kubota sell their tractors to any other companies. Mahindra builds tractors in India and China and also receives some models from a Korean company and from Mitsubishi in Japan. Kubota also manufactures their major attachments such as loaders at their plant in Georgia where they also produce lawn mowing units and their RTV's. So Kubota has the advantage of designing and manufacturing their attachments and Mahindra has to source out all of their attachments and rely on another company's engineering. It also reasonable to think that parts availability would be better from Kubota than they would be from Mahindra. Kubota has four parts centers in the US and Mahindra only has one. From the information I could get over the internet and from a book called the Official Tractor Guide, a five year old Kubota would have a little better resale value than a Mahindra but I am sure condition of the tractor is most important determining factor. I think in my final analysis, both companies have good tractors. I decided on purchasing the Kubota because the local Kubota dealer has been in business for about 30 years and I anticipate he will be in business if my tractor needs service in the years to come.