A New England Regional State of Mind

[cowboydoc]

<font color="red">only somewhat to my surprise and perhaps to yours as well, I've found that in my general region, the non-Big 3 vendors seem to take the approach that there machine IS just as good as Green, Orange or Blue and will sell it for very near the same price.
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I'm glad you said this DAP. I've been saying this for years and people always tell me I'm full of it. I can buy a John Deere cheaper than a Mahindra and definitely cheaper than Kioti.

 

[ByronBob]

I had something like that experience when looking for a tractor. The closer I went to the city not only did they not bargin at all, 2 dealers didn't even carry tractors. Oh they had water pumps, generators, cutting tools and other "construction" equipement in the Kubota line. How could they be considered dealers in Kubota's without selling tractors?? Thankfully within a 30 mile radius I do have 4 other Kubota options as were still rural enough to have competetion in this market and prices are flexible I suppose because they want you to buy implements from them knowing very well that price flexibility on them won't be so easy to come by

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

It does not hurt to check out your local AG publications and see who is advertisting. The larger dealers who do are often willing to drive quite a ways to deliver a tractor. I am about 400-500 miles from most of New England but we do so much business up there that CT came after us and forced us to collect their sales tax.

 

[jimg]

Here in NH my NH dealer did deal w/ me. I got his quote then went shopping. I later came back to him and we came to an agreement that was better than I could do else where (in or out of state). Even if I hadnt bought from him he still would have done my warranty work. It wasnt that way w/ Kubota or Deere. At the time Kubotas were very hard to get (at least the mdl I wanted) so the dealer didnt feel as though he needed to do anything special...and didnt. The Deere dealer was hilarious. His price was around $6-7k higher than anyone else for the same equipment. When I noted this he didnt have a comment. He was surprised though when I told him no deal and left. At the time there were no serious Cub or Case dealers but there are now (a day late and a penny short?). I did look at what you call 2nd tier and ruled them out pretty quickly. First, they werent going to deal b/c they couldnt. Their inventory was nil so volume pricing was out. I also felt that after the sale support would be less than good (parts/service). I can understand how you feel esp when so many others talk about their local TSC (or equivalent) and the great tractor deals they get w/o any hassle. However, these are the cards we have to play w/ so...

 

[FLDave]

Doug (DAP),
I can relate to your situation. I am originally from Connecticut and know about the population density and shrinking agriculture market.
Since I moved to Florida we kind of have the same situation. The coastal areas are being filled up and people are now starting to move inland. Florida has many dealers but they are all small and not willing to deal.
Get some good quotes from out of state, tell the local dealers you have these quotes but they are from dealers "a few hours away". Don't tell them the quote is from way the heck out in Arkansas or Texas, etc.,... Explain to them that you would like to buy locally but thousands of dollars difference is a big issue. If they don't budge then go to the next dealer and so on.
With the help of the people on this board I was able to get a price from a dealer 1 1/2 hours away that matched my other lowest quote in Ohio. Noone said it was going to be easy, you are going to have to play hardball and get some quotes...not all of them are going to be good.
Richard (cowboydoc) is 100% correct on John Deere...you can get 18-23% off but for a new customer you are going to have to make them compete against each other for the sale. If they are not hungry for your business what makes you think they'll take care of you afterwards?
Good Luck, /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[garbageman]

Doug,
When I was tractor shopping in our neck of the woods, the dealers were as you stated limitted. Blue was just down the road but his prices were out of sight as was orange in Pine Bush, but both nice people. The green dealer in mid-county didn't give me the time of day. The other two orange dealers, one in northern N.J. and the other in eastern PA were were much cheaper (1,500-2000). I went with the dealer in PA, he gave me a fair price and as much time needed to make a decision. No pressure. The dealer is 65 miles from home and (knock on wood) no warranty problems as of 75hrs
Ray

 

[KirkMcD]

I just wanted to add that I live on the other side of the river from you, in Dutchess County and I found a dealer in Millbrook, NY that sold me a Kubota and a bunch of implements for an average of 9% off list price. Not as good as NC but pretty good for the area. He also didn't charge me for labor on installation of some options I purchased for the tractor. There were some other freebies too. He may have come down some more on the price, but he kept dropping it without me even asking, so I didn't try to bargain too hard.
He also sells Cub Cadet tractors.

So, maybe you were just traveling in the wrong direction when looking for dealers.

 

[DAP]

Kirk ... I've been to some Duchess dealers as well. Ran into much the same.

Spend enough time here on TBN and you'll see a lot of deals going down with discounts frequently in the 12-16% range.

9% is 9% though. The diff on a 15,500 MRSP with 9% is roughly 1400 bucks. At 14% it's about 2100 clams. That's a nice box blade, and 50 service with delivery - or a trailer or 3 years free fuel or etc. No chumpchange there!


/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[DAP]

In an attempt to refocus this thread, it's not about WHERE to find a deal.

It's about the FACT that some folks really have NO LOCAL OPTIONS where local means within an hour or so drive.

 

[LarryRB]

For the umpteenth time this comes around. Simply put in (my eyes) the NE dealers are still operating like the old yankees they are.. They are petrified of change even having to change phone systems, go to computers, etc, etc.. Their overall stuborness is driving us to shop elsewhere. In the meatime, the N.E. dealers are becoming more and more frustrated because they are not selling like they wish and the few that are sold are usually considerably over lists... They are so mad, warranty work may or may not be performed on an out of area dealer.. I understand the much higher costs of doing business here than most of the remaining country.. Believe me I do,, especially when the politiciand dream up new things so when you make your first honest clear dollar, they already schemed four more taxes to take 95 cents of that dollar.. This, in itself, creates major frustration..
My wife worked very shortly for a GM dealer.. They were going through a major computer structural change with GM changing the chart of accounts, the software and several other things.. The owner accused my wife of pulling numbers out of the air and placing them in worng accounting charts... The wife walked out.. GM and ADP both in verbal and writing and in instructional books, showed this owner, this is the new way and she is right. She is not fabricating numbers.. Well, the pressure got to high and the wife walked anyway.. Here is a typical example of yankees who refuse change.. My wife can easily give this dealership a very hard time due to slander and other.. She won't, and the reason is,, this dealer will hang themsleves and it won't take long.. She feels this will be enough.. . BTW, my wife has worked in a dealership since 12 years old when her parents demanded she work the office after school in their own Dodge/Chrysler/IH truck dealership.. So the wife has over 40 years in this field and been through a gazillion changes.. She'll be the first to tell you,, her parents didn't refuse all change like most, BUT, did procratinate in the changes at extremely slow rate.. After 51 years, it finally did them in.. My mother in law almoist every single day now tells me "we should have this and that".. Too late now.. And the tractor dealers are heading down the same path.. Have any idea how many N.E. dealers still aren't on the internet.. I ran into a Kubota dealer that could care less.. everything is on paper, but, he does know how to run a fax machine..