I know you hate foreign made chicom stuff. you must hate your Kubota:laughing:
Candidly, I don't hate anyone or anything except maybe my ex wife......
My Kubota's are all about not being able to purchase a late model domestically made tractor (not that there are any). in the class that I require.
and.... Kubota and other offshore produced makes (yours as well) have a domestic presence and employ Americans in those facilities and they didn't put anyone out of business bringing in foreign junk, unlike Jet tanking Wilton or Grizzly buying the assets of South Bend Lathe and then prostituting the tradename on a oriental machine.
I'm as guilty as the next guy when it comes to the most bang for my buck, but, at some point we all need to take a long hard look at where this 'World Class Manufacturing' and supporting third world economies has gotten us and more importantly, where it's taking us.
You don't buy 30 grand cars and 150 grand homes working at a fast food emporium, let alone a 30 grand tractor and that's where this economy is headed, like it or not.
I make a deliberate effort to buy domestic as much as possible. All the materials my company uses are domestically produced and most of my machine tools are of domestic orign, not all, but most. It would be all but we've lost so much manufacturing base here to lower cost foreign competition that some items are only available in off shore brands.... and that really holds true in a production versus cost scenario. When you are competiting with foreign manufacturing (and I do), you either build a better mousetrap, lower your upfront operating costs, or both and the alternative is ceasing doing business, something that's happened to a whole raft of American manufacturers.
I've survived (so far) because I run lean and mean. I've built a better mousetrap and I constantly watch manufacturing processes for ways to increase efficiency, so yes, I get incensed about foreign junk, when, in fact, it's junk and it all isn't, by any means.
People today are conditioned to accept offshore as quality (and it oftentimes is) without thought as to the impact on them and their country and it's manufacturing base and how it will effect their lives and especially the lives of future generations.........
So I have my Kubota's and I drive a Suzuki (GM Tracker with Suzuki drivetrain) and I ride and own numerous motorcycles of British manufacture but I'm always aware of the end game as everyone in this country needs to be..... but isn't.