Dealer Help Locating an Iowa or a Midwest Dealer

[clemsonfor]

Isnt montana one of those tractors that is part of Escourt group or Ls or whatever the parent company is that used to own the farmtrac brand which is now defunct and left all the owners in limbo over parts and warrenty here in the US. I may be wrong but i thought they were the same company. I beleive montana had been bought in the last 3-5 years? I personally if i was buying new and trying to get the most tractor for my money and not planning on selling in 10 years (so not as concerned with resale) i would think hard about manihandra.

 

[clemsonfor]

TractorData.com - Montana tractors sorted by model

It used to be an LS company which owned the now defuct Farmtact brand as well when it dissappeared. The partnered with some crazy name company (see link) that is also the supplier of branson tractors so they may not be as volitile as the LS group? But even when talking Branson, Manihandra or Montana there all Indian or S. Korean brands so you never know what tomorrow brings as its harder to enforce US lemon laws and Warrenty stuff upon them.

 

[California]

It used to be an LS company which owned the now defuct Farmtact brand as well when it disappeared. The partnered with some crazy name company (see link) that is also the supplier of branson tractors so they may not be as volitile as the LS group? But even when talking Branson, Manihandra or Montana there all Indian or S. Korean brands so you never know what tomorrow brings as its harder to enforce US lemon laws and Warrenty stuff upon them.

My understanding was a little different, that LS provided tractors to be sold as Farmtrac in the US, and got burned when the new owners of Farmtrac picked up all their chips and went home to India without paying their bills. (LS was also providing tractors to Montana during that period).

And a minor coincidence: Kukje (Montana's new supplier) has appeared in this Yanmar forum. Apparently some Kukje's have arrived here with Yanmar logos on them. I don't remember if these were legitimate, or some bogus 'reconditioned' monstrosity.

I have a lot of respect for Mahindra. They have been a major part of agriculture in India since at least WWII, maybe before. I think the tractor on Indian currency is a Mahindra. However ... the recent delays in bringing over the Mahindra diesel pickup and SUV that were supposed to arrive a year or more ago, don't exactly cover them with glory. I've read that the guy who thought he was the new US vehicle (not tractor) distributor is now suing them for their delays after he spent a lot of money to arrange a US nationwide dealer network. I still would buy a Mahindra tractor, but I've given up waiting for that diesel pickup.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yea Cali, i think i have half facts and knowlege on this. Like i mentioned in my first post, Escort had something to do with Farmtrac. Maybe that was the US selling company which way getting tractors from LS. I dont know, its all a little to iffy for me to spend the new tractor money on them though, i think manihandra is a better bet.

I went on montanas site yesterday, the blue special edition tractors look like the farmtracs that were ford copies use to. I think those special eddition tractors are copies of ford 3000's or 3010 and such, just like farmtrac had, which makes sense if LS made them both, now with Kukje in it i dont know.

 

[California]

For a while I was following the FarmTrac Troubles thread here. I see it is now 51 pages! I thought I read there that Escorts is an Indian company that supplied some of the Farmtrac models then bought Farmtrac and sent over new management. (Possibly when Farmtrac couldn't pay them). Then those managers stripped Farmtrac's assets and went home to India. Or something like that. Maybe it was a repo-man operation? And LS was one of Farmtrac's vendors that never got paid.

The main emphasis in that thread is the Farmtrac dealers had tractors pushed out to them that they never ordered and now they still owe the finance company for them. But most states Lemon Laws say they can't sell them now because there is no longer warranty parts support. Big mess.

Reading between the lines, this has apparently bankrupted some of the smaller former Farmtrac retailers. I doubt any of the dealers are getting what they owe on them, no matter how they dispose of them.

That problem of the distributor demanding a contract that lets them push unwanted product out to the retailer (and obligates the retailer to pay the finance company for the product, whether he wanted it or not) isn't new. The auto industry has done that in the past.

None of this affects the quality of LS tractors. I'm glad to see them establish their own dealer network to sell directly in the US. And their presence here means that there is now a parts channel for the orphan Farmtracs that were built by LS.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yea i had read the front and back side of that thread for a few pages on either side several months ago, got enough ammo to be dangerous i guess, then i was like man i could read this for the next 8 hours and barley get through it, plus i dont even own a farmtrac and now i dont really want to.