I have nothing against Mahindra, but why are you only looking at them? I find it really hard to believe Mahindra is the only dealer near you, so you're not helping yourself by limiting your options. In my experience Mahindra was the most ridiculous price I found, so you really may be hurting yourself by not looking at other brands.
HST versus Shuttle I'm firmly on the HST side. I have not operated a shuttle tractor, but I operate a manual gear tractor, and have some experience on a Power shuttle. You can do all the same things, just some will take longer with a shuttle. The learning curve is a lot steeper with a shuttle. With loader work and snowblower use the main uses, there is no reason to go with a gear tractor. HST is better at both those tasks. The 1K difference between the trannys is not noticeable over the 25K+ cost of the entire tractor
Cabs are nice, hands down, but expensive. If you can swing it, do it.
Backhoe. If you will use it on a regular basis, get it now, you need it. If not, that's a very very very expensive counterweight.
Again, Look at ALL the brands with dealers in the area. You are only hurting yourself if you don't and possibly costing yourself a lot of money. This is a big decision, so don't rush it.
