Z-Michigan
Veteran Member
Summary: great dealer, buy with confidence.
Narrative:
I bought my first tractor in early 2007 after moving from the city to a 20-acre farm for my wife. I had no prior tractor, farm or livestock experience. At that time I did lots of research and seriously considered Kubota, Deere, New Holland, and to a lesser extent Kioti. The main issue for me with Kioti, then, was that the only nearby dealer wasn't very close (50 miles or so) and had only three in stock, which all looked a bit worn. My instinct then was right as that dealer went under a year or two later and a for a brief time there was no Kioti dealer in the area. I ended up buying a Deere 5105, which was a great tractor overall, but not the right fit for my uses - bigger than I needed, and I ended up wanting HST instead of a clutch and gear. I had come very close to buying a Kubota L5130 and in hindsight wish I had, but I didn't. The Deere was sold to me by a dealer that did an excellent job of selling, but about a month or two after the sale was not interested in service, even for rather blatant defects in two of the implements they sold me. That soured me on that dealer, which just happened to be one location of a local chain that completely dominates the Deere market within 30-40 miles. Ugh.
A short time after buying the tractor I also bought some other implements from a different local dealer. One of those implements (the much more expensive, premium-brand one) turned out to also be defective, and I had the strange experience of having the dealer tell me that the manufacturer rep for Landpride had looked at it, agreed it was defective, but refused to do anything about it. That seriously soured me on both that dealer and that implement brand.
I bought a loader spear from a third dealer, who had a good price and good service. I had no issues with that. For those thinking I'm really hard on implements, I have four others that have never had an issue - that loader spear, a rear bale spear, a chain drag, and a TSC brand 6.5' disk, which has held up better any my Frontier and Landpride-branded implements; and I also have a Caroni flail mower, whose only issue is the same one that many people report, premature failure of the drive belts, which is fortunately relatively easy to fix with $40 in parts. (Though in my case getting some metal wrapped around the drum was probably 95% of the cause.)
Somewhere around the winter of 2009/10 I decided that I really wanted a HST tractor, and was willing to take some financial hit to switch. I did research again, and found that Deere and Kubota had excellent options but with "are you kidding" retail prices. I took another look at Kioti and really liked what I saw. Just as importantly, I discovered that there was again a Kioti dealer in the area, Michigan Iron and Equipment. I had never heard of them but called them, visited them, and I believe also saw them at the Michigan Ag Expo. I had very good impressions. I ended up deciding that a Kioti DK40SE HST was just the right size for my needs, and was able to buy one for a price that I considered very reasonable - on the order of $7000 less than a similar Kubota, and perhaps $10-12,000 less than a similar Deere. That was enough to take a risk. I sold my Deere in a private sale and bought the DK40SE HST from MIE. The sales experience was great, and smooth - but I have found most dealers can manage that, so I didn't write a review immediately, knowing that the real test was post-sale service.
While, it is now almost 4 years since I bought my Kioti from MIE, and I am here to say I am very happy with the dealership. My Kioti tractor has had only one problem which I needed dealer help with - during this severe winter, I had an O-ring fail in the loader valve, causing me to lose hydraulic fluid and immobilize the tractor. MIE was able to send someone out the day after I called, and they fixed it quickly on the spot. The failure was outside of the warranty, but their charge for the farm call and fix was reasonable. I really appreciate how quickly they were able to come out, as I had no other way to remove snow from my 900' driveway.
I've also had routine maintenance done by MIE and it has been prompt, properly done, and reasonable in cost.
Having been burned by two other dealers I waited a looooong time to write a review of another, but at nearly 4 years I feel confident in praising every aspect of MIE's operations - selection, customer service, maintenance and repair work, honesty, ease of doing business.
I'm pretty sure MIE is a regular on this forum, but in case not, their website is Error
I have not been asked to write this review or compensated in any way. Purely my own initiative.
I am also extremely happy with my Kioti tractor. The only thing I question is whether I should have bought a cab model instead of open platform. Sometime I'll write a detailed review, but having owned a Deere and test driven a LOT of Kubotas, I don't believe you are giving up anything but higher prices when buying a Kioti.
Narrative:
I bought my first tractor in early 2007 after moving from the city to a 20-acre farm for my wife. I had no prior tractor, farm or livestock experience. At that time I did lots of research and seriously considered Kubota, Deere, New Holland, and to a lesser extent Kioti. The main issue for me with Kioti, then, was that the only nearby dealer wasn't very close (50 miles or so) and had only three in stock, which all looked a bit worn. My instinct then was right as that dealer went under a year or two later and a for a brief time there was no Kioti dealer in the area. I ended up buying a Deere 5105, which was a great tractor overall, but not the right fit for my uses - bigger than I needed, and I ended up wanting HST instead of a clutch and gear. I had come very close to buying a Kubota L5130 and in hindsight wish I had, but I didn't. The Deere was sold to me by a dealer that did an excellent job of selling, but about a month or two after the sale was not interested in service, even for rather blatant defects in two of the implements they sold me. That soured me on that dealer, which just happened to be one location of a local chain that completely dominates the Deere market within 30-40 miles. Ugh.
A short time after buying the tractor I also bought some other implements from a different local dealer. One of those implements (the much more expensive, premium-brand one) turned out to also be defective, and I had the strange experience of having the dealer tell me that the manufacturer rep for Landpride had looked at it, agreed it was defective, but refused to do anything about it. That seriously soured me on both that dealer and that implement brand.
I bought a loader spear from a third dealer, who had a good price and good service. I had no issues with that. For those thinking I'm really hard on implements, I have four others that have never had an issue - that loader spear, a rear bale spear, a chain drag, and a TSC brand 6.5' disk, which has held up better any my Frontier and Landpride-branded implements; and I also have a Caroni flail mower, whose only issue is the same one that many people report, premature failure of the drive belts, which is fortunately relatively easy to fix with $40 in parts. (Though in my case getting some metal wrapped around the drum was probably 95% of the cause.)
Somewhere around the winter of 2009/10 I decided that I really wanted a HST tractor, and was willing to take some financial hit to switch. I did research again, and found that Deere and Kubota had excellent options but with "are you kidding" retail prices. I took another look at Kioti and really liked what I saw. Just as importantly, I discovered that there was again a Kioti dealer in the area, Michigan Iron and Equipment. I had never heard of them but called them, visited them, and I believe also saw them at the Michigan Ag Expo. I had very good impressions. I ended up deciding that a Kioti DK40SE HST was just the right size for my needs, and was able to buy one for a price that I considered very reasonable - on the order of $7000 less than a similar Kubota, and perhaps $10-12,000 less than a similar Deere. That was enough to take a risk. I sold my Deere in a private sale and bought the DK40SE HST from MIE. The sales experience was great, and smooth - but I have found most dealers can manage that, so I didn't write a review immediately, knowing that the real test was post-sale service.
While, it is now almost 4 years since I bought my Kioti from MIE, and I am here to say I am very happy with the dealership. My Kioti tractor has had only one problem which I needed dealer help with - during this severe winter, I had an O-ring fail in the loader valve, causing me to lose hydraulic fluid and immobilize the tractor. MIE was able to send someone out the day after I called, and they fixed it quickly on the spot. The failure was outside of the warranty, but their charge for the farm call and fix was reasonable. I really appreciate how quickly they were able to come out, as I had no other way to remove snow from my 900' driveway.
I've also had routine maintenance done by MIE and it has been prompt, properly done, and reasonable in cost.
Having been burned by two other dealers I waited a looooong time to write a review of another, but at nearly 4 years I feel confident in praising every aspect of MIE's operations - selection, customer service, maintenance and repair work, honesty, ease of doing business.
I'm pretty sure MIE is a regular on this forum, but in case not, their website is Error
I have not been asked to write this review or compensated in any way. Purely my own initiative.
I am also extremely happy with my Kioti tractor. The only thing I question is whether I should have bought a cab model instead of open platform. Sometime I'll write a detailed review, but having owned a Deere and test driven a LOT of Kubotas, I don't believe you are giving up anything but higher prices when buying a Kioti.
