jcmseven
Veteran Member
Skidoo,
You are correct. John Deere is not saying that a customer would implode if he or she bought a four acre machine for an up to seven acre lawn, just that such a machine would likely offer a shorter service life (in years) than their target lifespan. They have done massive market research and they know their customers quite well. It is totally initiated by marketing. Then, they design the equipment to offer a service life to match what their marketing recommends. It makes sense when you think about it. If you have a 1/4 acre lawn and buy a 749 with a 62" deck, you could mow your lawn in about eight minutes, give or take. The design life of a 749 is between 3000-4000 hours, with good maintenence. This in essence means that if you mowed weekly for forty weeks out of the year, you would put between six and seven hours per year on your machine (actually more of course because the machine would be running some when not actually mowing). At this rate the X749 would last theoretically 300-400 years. This, of course, would be excessive. Conversely if you have an L100, which has a service predicted life of 500-800 hours on average, and you owned and mowed seven acres which you mowed weekly, you could expect--at best--to put 320 hours per year mowing on your machine. Given the design service life, you would need to buy another in about two years--not good. But for the person in situation one--or even say someone who mows one acre and puts forty-fifty hours yearly on his/her machine, this would equal a service life on 10+ years, which is a satisfactory target for most companies. This is how they do it. They let their market research drive their design, then they counter by designing machines and MARKETING them to those that fit into the molds for each. By printing this in their pamphlets, they also offer the power of suggestion steering people to the "appropriate" machine (or one higher than appropriate) and making things easier for the dealer.
John M
You are correct. John Deere is not saying that a customer would implode if he or she bought a four acre machine for an up to seven acre lawn, just that such a machine would likely offer a shorter service life (in years) than their target lifespan. They have done massive market research and they know their customers quite well. It is totally initiated by marketing. Then, they design the equipment to offer a service life to match what their marketing recommends. It makes sense when you think about it. If you have a 1/4 acre lawn and buy a 749 with a 62" deck, you could mow your lawn in about eight minutes, give or take. The design life of a 749 is between 3000-4000 hours, with good maintenence. This in essence means that if you mowed weekly for forty weeks out of the year, you would put between six and seven hours per year on your machine (actually more of course because the machine would be running some when not actually mowing). At this rate the X749 would last theoretically 300-400 years. This, of course, would be excessive. Conversely if you have an L100, which has a service predicted life of 500-800 hours on average, and you owned and mowed seven acres which you mowed weekly, you could expect--at best--to put 320 hours per year mowing on your machine. Given the design service life, you would need to buy another in about two years--not good. But for the person in situation one--or even say someone who mows one acre and puts forty-fifty hours yearly on his/her machine, this would equal a service life on 10+ years, which is a satisfactory target for most companies. This is how they do it. They let their market research drive their design, then they counter by designing machines and MARKETING them to those that fit into the molds for each. By printing this in their pamphlets, they also offer the power of suggestion steering people to the "appropriate" machine (or one higher than appropriate) and making things easier for the dealer.
John M
