Price Check 790 or 4200 ?? Price decent?

KerryK · Oct 11, 2004

I am looking at the following 2 JD's:

790 with 70 FEL
4200 with 420 FEL (syncshift)

Both are '00 models with belly mowers, both under 500 hrs, both are 4wd, both have turf tires, and both are in the same shape (clean).

Dealer is sitting around 12,500 on either of them, my initial research points me towards the 4200, seems like the price is a little high for a 790.

I am asking (begging) for direction towards one or the other - also curious as to if the prices are in range.

Everything I have seen on the net - this appears to be a decent price on the 4200.

Thanks!

Kerry

Ledgemere Farm · Oct 11, 2004

Get the 4200. It is a more featured tractor.

RoyJackson · Oct 11, 2004

Yeah...I got a 790 and really like it..but I'd lean toward the 4200

Jim_Fisher · Oct 11, 2004

Kerry,

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Both are '00 models with belly mowers, both under 500 hrs, both are 4wd, both have turf tires, and both are in the same shape (clean). )</font>

Plug the serial number of the 4200 into the John Deere Product Improvement Programs web page. The 4000 series had a number of in line changes during their production run. Might not be a bad idea to know if it has the new style or old style steering axle. There were also changes made to the range shifting linkage and the parking brake.

Having owned an old style 4200 (1998) and a new style 4300 (2000), I feel that a tractor which has the in line changes is more desirable than one without the in line changes.

The folks on the board who own 790's speak highly of them and seem to be quite pleased with their design and performance. Other than the problem with the steering axle, I was quite pleased with my 4200.

Are the belly mowers both the same size - 60" or 72"?

stuart · Oct 12, 2004

Kerry, I own the 4300 (2000) model and am very pleased with it. The loader itself is worth about 2800 to 3k. Mine is Hydro and that is the only big difference. Mine already had the new axle. I have no belly mower (another 2k or so depending on brand) because I was concerned about clearance being too low. Good luck.

KerryK · Oct 12, 2004

Thanks all for the comments. I spent some time at the dealer last night playing with the 790 (the 4200 was gone). After a little dickering on the 790 we found out the 4200 was on a trailer out back going out for demo.

We pulled it off of the trailer and gave it a spin - really liked it!

In a side by side comparison the 4200 was far more feature rich and user friendly. The wife hopped on and took off w/out a thought.

After some dickering - I took the 4200 w/420 loader and 60" commercial belly mower (363 hrs) for $11,499. The dealership is sending me all service records and the previous owners info as a final contingency on the purchase. Assuming all is well they'll deliver it later this week.

From my research this is a pretty good deal - anyone have input on the price?

Thanks for info on the serial number check - all is clear on this one with no updates listed.

Thanks again - sure there will be more posts coming in the near future!

Kerry

yellowsocks93 · Oct 12, 2004

That price seems really good. I sold my 4300 sinc shift 2001 model with 7 iron belly mount deck for 13,300 with 123 hours. I still thought it was worth more but had to get rid of it real fast before I had to do payments on the 990. I had a 790 before the 4300 and I did like the 4300 a bit more. It was larger so it's easier to get on and off and I installed the optional armrest kit which was very nice to have. You might look into that.