Bob_In_MN,
I'm sorry to hear about your less than happy dealer experience. Some dealers make life the proverbial bowl of cherries and the others give the whole brand a bad rap. Sounds like you ran into a bushel of bad apples (alright - no more rotten fruit analogies). /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
I started talking to the dealer I eventually bought from 2 years prior to buying. I did consider and talk to other dealers, but the quality of things like the quotes they sent me were an early indication of the service to come down the road.
I went where I was consistently treated well. I let the dealer know that I wasn't planning to buy for at least 2 years and still they were helpful, spending hours with me making sure I was going to end up with what I needed. Throughout and after the sale they came through on promises. They spent 5 hours in the bitter cold with me and my wife and my parents so that we were all comfortable taking the implements on and off and using the tractor.
I trace all this back to a willingness on the dealer's part to help with the seemingly most trivial requests from the very beginnnig - way before they could be assured of a sale. The must have spent 10 hours with me and written up 5 individual quotes before I even came close to buying. In fact I bought more than a year after this. They were patient and so was I.
In the end it was all about people. I got what I consider to be an excellent deal on my equipment, but I knew that would follow given that I was dealing with people who had already demonstrated that they were fair and reasonable.
It a shame there aren't more dealers out there like mine, but I hope that no one is turned off from the brand because of some bad dealers. I haven't known enough tractor folk in my area to make an educated assesment as to the frequency of the bad dealer experience, but I would hope it would be the exception and not the norm.
In your case the initial purchase is done with, but I'm sure you will be needing services and other implements down the road. If your dealer wants your continued business, he will accomodate your needs. If he does not then try to find a dealer who will go out of their way to help even if they don't see $$$ signs right away. I have found that makes all the difference. Best of luck!
Sleepyhollow