Taxpayer, you have a lot of the facts correct. I will just fill in a few blanks and expand on a couple of things. I am being very careful to say enough, but not enough to get me in trouble. People on the street are asking me questions they should not know I have the answers to. 
The Escorts deal was with the Same line of tractors. That contract has been voided for Farmtrac's failure to meet certain contract points. There is no or limited contact between Same and Farmtrac at this time. Deutz NA is providing tech support on the 7 series Same tractors. Also will supply parts. No warranty. True Same tractors have been back under the Deutz NA wing for some time. I would have to look back to get the date as I don't remember exactly.
The Deutz brand was never involved in that contract. VJ is now head of Deutz NA. However, remember that VJ left the company. I can not go into details on that. You seem connected enough to figure out the time line on your own. I personally don't see VJ as a problem with Farmtrac or Deutz.
Your second post just needs a little expanding. I think you are dead on the target. Here are the details your are missing. First, Textron funds the tractors at 100% of dealer invoice. This happens in three steps. When the tractor hits the water, the bulk of the money is advanced to Farmtrac so they can pay the manufacturer. Once the tractor gets to port and is transported to Tarboro, another advance is made to cover the installation of batteries, wheels, and tires. The last advance is made after the dealer orders the tractor and it is pinned to the dealer account. I don't know how far to go on the pricing structure and still stay out of trouble. To my knowledge, Montana and Farmtrac tractors of the same series were priced within a few dollars of each other. Some days one would be higher than the other. Low rate financing programs and the famous 'Less than Zero' tilted the field toward Farmtrac last year. In addition Farmtrac had a greater inventory of the now "old" LS series while Montana was shipping the new R series. To compare a R to the 40 series is not fair. LS added the features everyone was asking for in the 40 series so the "old" Farmtrac was going to be cheaper than the "new" R series. Toward the end Farmtrac was shipping the 30 series which was the R series and prices were near each other. This market difference was not planned by Farmtrac or Montana. At least I can find no proof of it.
Where is the money? I like your thinking on that. I have no way to prove it.
This industry is interesting to watch. One thing you will see is that among the mids and smalls no one is willing to speak out as employment changes quickly. The butt you kick today could well be the butt you need to kiss next week. That will never change. Information is traded in hushed whispers in person. Phone calls can be recorded and emails/letters last forever. You pool the information from all sources, filter, compare and fact check what you can. Then you have to figure out what you can say or not say based on who can get hurt now or later by releasing something that is not already public knowledge.
Lastly, I can tell you that Farmtrac (whole industry really) dealers are being hurt by sales programs. I just told you that Textron funds at 100% of dealer invoice. When you look at the low rate programs the company pays the "buy down" on the note. Interest is forward paid on the day the contract is accepted. This is the difference between the "true" rate and the "low rate". Figuring the buy down is a simple matter of running the low rate payment back thru the payment processor to get the net present value of the contract. Without banging numbers I will go with the last deal I heard. 25K tractor on 0/48 had a buy down of $3200 and some change. What that means is the dealer was over billed for the tractor to cover the buy down by $3200 bucks. The dealer will pay interest on the full dealer invoice while everyone in the industry knows the tractor was really only worth 3200 less than the dealer invoice. Take that percent of over pricing across 50 tractors and see what it does to the annual interest a dealer pays and how high his credit line has to be inflated. Now, jerk that program away as this Farmtrac mess has and you have a bunch of unhappy dealers staring at a huge loss from day one. Some of this over pricing occurs on cash discounts. However, that problem has not expanded to the limits of the low rate mess yet. As each company tries to "give" more and more of a "free lunch" to the buyer the tractor price increases to cover the "gift". I can tell you that low rate is paid for by the cash customer as well. He gets no where near the deal that the low rate guy gets. Big trade in or large down payments help the company as well.
This is getting long. Going to stop here.
Tim
The Escorts deal was with the Same line of tractors. That contract has been voided for Farmtrac's failure to meet certain contract points. There is no or limited contact between Same and Farmtrac at this time. Deutz NA is providing tech support on the 7 series Same tractors. Also will supply parts. No warranty. True Same tractors have been back under the Deutz NA wing for some time. I would have to look back to get the date as I don't remember exactly.
The Deutz brand was never involved in that contract. VJ is now head of Deutz NA. However, remember that VJ left the company. I can not go into details on that. You seem connected enough to figure out the time line on your own. I personally don't see VJ as a problem with Farmtrac or Deutz.
Your second post just needs a little expanding. I think you are dead on the target. Here are the details your are missing. First, Textron funds the tractors at 100% of dealer invoice. This happens in three steps. When the tractor hits the water, the bulk of the money is advanced to Farmtrac so they can pay the manufacturer. Once the tractor gets to port and is transported to Tarboro, another advance is made to cover the installation of batteries, wheels, and tires. The last advance is made after the dealer orders the tractor and it is pinned to the dealer account. I don't know how far to go on the pricing structure and still stay out of trouble. To my knowledge, Montana and Farmtrac tractors of the same series were priced within a few dollars of each other. Some days one would be higher than the other. Low rate financing programs and the famous 'Less than Zero' tilted the field toward Farmtrac last year. In addition Farmtrac had a greater inventory of the now "old" LS series while Montana was shipping the new R series. To compare a R to the 40 series is not fair. LS added the features everyone was asking for in the 40 series so the "old" Farmtrac was going to be cheaper than the "new" R series. Toward the end Farmtrac was shipping the 30 series which was the R series and prices were near each other. This market difference was not planned by Farmtrac or Montana. At least I can find no proof of it.
Where is the money? I like your thinking on that. I have no way to prove it.
This industry is interesting to watch. One thing you will see is that among the mids and smalls no one is willing to speak out as employment changes quickly. The butt you kick today could well be the butt you need to kiss next week. That will never change. Information is traded in hushed whispers in person. Phone calls can be recorded and emails/letters last forever. You pool the information from all sources, filter, compare and fact check what you can. Then you have to figure out what you can say or not say based on who can get hurt now or later by releasing something that is not already public knowledge.
Lastly, I can tell you that Farmtrac (whole industry really) dealers are being hurt by sales programs. I just told you that Textron funds at 100% of dealer invoice. When you look at the low rate programs the company pays the "buy down" on the note. Interest is forward paid on the day the contract is accepted. This is the difference between the "true" rate and the "low rate". Figuring the buy down is a simple matter of running the low rate payment back thru the payment processor to get the net present value of the contract. Without banging numbers I will go with the last deal I heard. 25K tractor on 0/48 had a buy down of $3200 and some change. What that means is the dealer was over billed for the tractor to cover the buy down by $3200 bucks. The dealer will pay interest on the full dealer invoice while everyone in the industry knows the tractor was really only worth 3200 less than the dealer invoice. Take that percent of over pricing across 50 tractors and see what it does to the annual interest a dealer pays and how high his credit line has to be inflated. Now, jerk that program away as this Farmtrac mess has and you have a bunch of unhappy dealers staring at a huge loss from day one. Some of this over pricing occurs on cash discounts. However, that problem has not expanded to the limits of the low rate mess yet. As each company tries to "give" more and more of a "free lunch" to the buyer the tractor price increases to cover the "gift". I can tell you that low rate is paid for by the cash customer as well. He gets no where near the deal that the low rate guy gets. Big trade in or large down payments help the company as well.
This is getting long. Going to stop here.
Tim