Your concern is justified. You are getting ready to spend small fortune and you only get one chance to "get it right". Over the years all the manufacturers have at one time or another been on both sides of the "horsepower/weight ratio".
How do you intend to use the tractor? Do you intend to do very much "ground engaging" work? That is when the weight will be most recognizable, as it is required to make the best use of all that power. Heavy loader work would be another application where weight is critical. And no matter what anybody tells you, wheel
ballast is not always the answer.
Keep in mind that the "E" stands for
economy. Rather than jump to the 6E series you may want to check the other 5000 entries, the M and R. Above all else take your time, shop around and of course, don't buy from any dealer with a poor reputation for service. After all, new tractors and "shade-tree mechanics" don't play well together.
Big weight differences. Big dollar differences. Big decision.
Deere (as well as other manufacturers) sometimes has lease return units, though I understand these are increasingly hard to come by. Typically these have balance of factory warranty with only a few hundred hours on the meter. Some may be eligible for low rate financing or cash rebates. Usage is generally light, with some machines used simply for drawbar work.
CaseIH has a good comparison tool, so I borrowed it and exported some info to highlight a few differences between the 100HP(gross)-class 5000 series entries, deleting specs that were largely identical between the Deere models.
Years ago I bought a tractor that was the highest HP in a family that had about five models sharing the same frame. It had plenty of power but the frame was too small to really make use of it.
