Tom - Sorry to hear about your experience at the JD dealership. Even if the salesman is not getting a straight delivery date from JD parent, this happened to me, the person you interface with should be straight up and keep you informed for better or worse. JD's production schedules can take a hit or shift such that dealers are left trying to explain to the customer what happened. My dealer, small single family dealer, has been great to me for 8 years but initially when I bought my JD tractor the factory changed the delivery date the day before the tractor was due at the dealer. I saw it with my own eyes on the dealers login site. My followup was a clear strongly worded email to JD headquarters outlined what had happened and they had put me and my dealer in a bad spot. Next day I got a phone call from JD's VP of production apologizing for the situation. Took a couple of weeks to get all pieces together...tractor, loader, and backhoe but they showed up and I couldn't be happier with the product. In the end I like many of JD's designs but I'm more bullish about my dealer than the company.