I offer the following suggestions: Exercise patience and caution and study tractors, attachments, and what you want to be able to do. Read the comparisons on the list. Look at the threads that talk about issues, repairs, and problems and note that some brands seem to have a lot more issues than others. Owners of particular brands generally recommend the brand that they have unless they have had issues. Keep in mind that there are some real bargains out there, but generally you get what you pay for. If you are buying from a dealer talk to people that have purchased from that dealer and find out his/her service record and how long has that dealership been in business. What kind of repair facility do they have and what are people saying about what they have had repaired or done by this shop. A quality performing tractor will long outlive an initially lower price. In other words shop value for your money rather than price. A good performing tractor is a joy to operate and one that is problematic is a real pain in the a**. Shopping can be fun if you let it. If you can wait until next year to purchase your tractor consider a trip to the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, KY in February. There are literally hundreds of brands there and attachments galore. This is touted as being the largest farm machinery show in the world. Occasionally, you can even find a discounted tractor and attachments there, but that is not the object of the show. We go every year and spend at least a day wandering around looking at all the marvelous toys, ah tools, that they have for us the consumer.
If so you most likely would have a hard time beating those prices. Remember though, those are the economy models and do not have the GOODIES with them.
