After I bought a 26 acre property to build my retirement house, I decided that a tractor would be a necessity. There are only 2 dealers within 100 miles of "nowhere" where my property was. A JD dealer and a Kubota/New Holland dealer.
Having heard good things about JD, I went there first. They had a very fancy showroon with tractors on display inside just like an auto dealer. A salesman was sitting beind a counter and as I walked around looking at their equipment, he totally ignored me. I walked up to him and asked what they had in a "small" tractor. Since this was my first, I had no idea what I wanted or needed. His reply was, and this is an exact quote - "There are some out back in the yard. Go out and look and tell me which one you want and we can write it up".
He never got up from his seat and I never went "out back". I have never been back to that place since.
Next I went to the K/NH dealer. It was a bunch of old run down sheds with new and used equipment scattered around. I met Al who's title was Sales Manager, but of course he was their only salesman. Al asked me a lot of questions about what size property, what did I want to do, what was my budget etc. After he was satisfied with the "interrogation", only then did he show me his equipment. He showed me several K's and NH's that would meet my needs.
We talked price and he gave me a
written quote that seemed resonable and never pressured me to make the sale. In the following weeks, I did some online and phone search in the Central Valley which is the closest agricultural area to me and found that Al's numbers were in line with market. I called Al and squeezed him a little more to throw in a shade canopy, free delivery of about 80 miles and a couple of small extras and he said OK.
A couple of days later I signed on the dotted line and my Kubota
B7800 was delivered within a week.
Sometimes the small dealers are the best. They have a large inventory of parts and I haven'''t ever had to wait for service.
