Well, I drove an hour to a dealer on Friday that sells Case, NH, and Kubota to look at the 3 different machines. And he apparently sells quite a lot of Kubotas in my area (even though there is a NH/Kubota dealer 20 minutes away), and won't charge additional for delivery.
I put a deposit on the Case. I liked the color scheme and front grille more than I thought I would (and more than the NH - no offense blue owners, just my personal opinion), and although the 3 pt hitch was a consideration, it turns out that the curved loader arms were what really sold me on the Case IH Farmall machine made by Case New Holland. How's that for corporate name recognition?
The Case came in $360 less than the NH, and $700 more than the Kubota. The dealership seems to be on the up-and-up, and although it seems that dealers in other parts of the country seem to sell a bit cheaper than the ones out here, I'm satisfied with the price I paid.
In addition, my tractor, loader, and MMM were still in the crates and wrap, so they are assembling it this week. I will have it before the 4th of July weekend, maybe even this coming weekend. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Just hope those turf tires will do the job when I'm doing dirt work - it would be months before I could get a set of bar tires. I'm trying to decide if I should order a 2nd set of rims and bar tires (and wait a while for them), order bars from the local tire shop and swap the turfs out, or get a set of chains. I think the chains will be a bit of a hassle when doing dirt work, and then needing to cross lawn and/or paved surfaces.
Oh, and by the way, all the comments were actually very helpful. There's just a lot to sort through when buying one of these machines.