Does Anyone Buy Used Tractors?

[MarblemountLane]

I’m retired and past my days of buying just about anything new. If you have old enough cars, trucks, tractors, guns, tools, etc. and you take care of them, they appreciate in value.

What is your budget? What do you really need (as opposed to what you want)? Are you in business and putting lots of hours on a tractor? Or are you just a home hobby owner putting a few hours on it?

For me, a tractor helps harvest firewood (my favorite chainsaw is the Homelite I bought new in 1984), move dirt a yard at a time (LoadHandler in my 1986 F250 is the poor man’s dump), move brush, clear snow, etc. But life would go on without it (I have a couple of 4x4s and winches). So a 60+ year old MF 204 is fine, simple to maintain, gets the job done, and I’m not worried about the count on the hour meter. Going my route gets you a lot more tractor for $2,500 than you’d get for $25,000 buying new or near new. The picture changes if you plan to put a lot of hours on it, but I won’t buy anything new enough to have electronics and emission controls.

 

[Paystar]

Ain't just on new cars. We bought a lifetime oil change from our local stealership (lifetime until ownership of stealership changes). They gave the vehicle back to her and 10 minutes later are calling me in a panic to have her bring the vehicle back. Seems they forgot to put the oil back in.

I'm truly surprised at how far she got before she panicked and pulled the vehicle off the road. Jokers showed up with oil, took her back to the stealership, and then let her go on her way. I got home that night and after listening to it run told her to take it back, it's toast. They wheedled and wined but finally caved in and put a replacement motor in (which took over a month to do). We did get a loaner in the meantime at their cost.

The problem is these places are set up for quick turnarounds. If the book says 2 hours for an alternator replacement and the tech gets it done in one hour he gets paid for two. If he breaks a bolt and it takes 4 hours to get the job done, he gets paid for 2. Do it fast and move on to the next, that's how mechanics make money. Speed vs quality.

I would have loved it if they'd discounted the value of our vehicle on a new one (we needed a new one) but sales and service are run like independent businesses and never the twain shall meet.

Well that sucks, but at least they gave you a new engine. And I agree with what you said.

I never even got an apology from that VW dealer or VW corporate, so therefore even though I like some VW vehicles, I will never own another.
I even advertise for them now. I modified all the VW shirts they gave me. They now all say VW SUCKS. LOL

 

[mo1]

Ain't just on new cars. We bought a lifetime oil change from our local stealership (lifetime until ownership of stealership changes). They gave the vehicle back to her and 10 minutes later are calling me in a panic to have her bring the vehicle back. Seems they forgot to put the oil back in.

I'm truly surprised at how far she got before she panicked and pulled the vehicle off the road. Jokers showed up with oil, took her back to the stealership, and then let her go on her way. I got home that night and after listening to it run told her to take it back, it's toast. They wheedled and wined but finally caved in and put a replacement motor in (which took over a month to do). We did get a loaner in the meantime at their cost.

The problem is these places are set up for quick turnarounds. If the book says 2 hours for an alternator replacement and the tech gets it done in one hour he gets paid for two. If he breaks a bolt and it takes 4 hours to get the job done, he gets paid for 2. Do it fast and move on to the next, that's how mechanics make money. Speed vs quality.

I would have loved it if they'd discounted the value of our vehicle on a new one (we needed a new one) but sales and service are run like independent businesses and never the twain shall meet.

That's why I always change my own oil. Changing oil and mounting/removing wheels is the lowest rung of mechanical work and a lot of shops and dealerships have the lowest-skilled people doing that work. Sometimes you get somebody who knows something and is "working their way up," other times you get the dropout whose tox screen would light up like a Christmas tree if he was ever tested, and he is working at the oil-change place precisely because they didn't make him pee in the cup.

Unless a tech is a shop owner, they nearly always get paid by the time-clock hour, not the book hour. If they do two hours of book labor in one hour, they get paid for one hour. If their average time to complete jobs doesn't "beat the book" by enough of a margin, they get fired.