Dealer Just who is a Yanmar dealer anyway?

[roger_scotty]

I'm a little confused. And I figure that if I am, then probably some of the rest of us are too. The thing is, I can't figure out what it takes to be a genuine Yanmar dealer......Is a guy a dealer because he buys a boxload of used tractors for resale? Or does he need to stock parts and offer mechanical services as well?
And while we are at it, would anyone be willing to pay a higher price to buy a tractor from a "full service " dealer? I'm thinking of the kind of dealer with real shop...he would employ a couple of dedicated mechanics who understood Yanmars (even powershift!), stock a few parts, and try to provide some friendly continuity after the sale.
Would anyone be willing to pay such a dealer a higher price for his tractors? Would he need to charge more to cover his overhead? How do you feel about 10%? 50%? Or does every dealer need to compete head to head on price with the guy who offers nothing but a running tractor at a low dollar. Honestly now, which one would you buy from? Lowest price or best service?

 

[Whiskey]

Roger:
You bring up some [censored] good points, I have surfed through the web and have seen on many a site "Certifed Yanmar Dealer" only to see what there selling are gray's, but supply parts for U.S. sold tractors now don't get me wrong I don't have any problem with gray market tractor I would love to own one and would do so in a heart beat if I didn't think my wife would kill me.
But it is confusing with what I read on other post about Yanmar trying to stop the support of dealers that supply parts for the gray market tractors. I think I read on there site "Yanmar U.S.A." something about just that.
Now I'm not a about to split the atom anytime soon and I'am not a lawyer, but my thinking is if your Yanmar and you singed a contract with the big J.D. company and you can't inport your new tractors to the U.S.A. for the length of that contract, but others's have come up with a way to feed a market in the U.S.A. with your product and it seem's that people love Yanmar tractors god know's I love mine, then why not suppot it with parts and make money with both hands.
It's sharp how the U.S.A. market will come up with new buiness to feed what it needs like after market R.O.P.S. , FEL's you know the folks at say Allied were watching when gray's started comming into this market and thinking "hey we need to jump on this and make loaders to fit or Goodyear and Firestone thinking we need to make tires for metric rims.
Somethine else the I don't understand is Kubota jumped right on the importing to stop it but Yanmar will put a note on there site and talk a good line but stop just short of following through. My thinking is there enjoying this whole thing. If I made a product the the farming community loved and my goverment gave out incetives for the farmers to trade in and buy new. Then my used product found a market over seas without my help and I had a contract with a big overseas company that bought me out for competetion purposes I would try very hard to make my parts find a way to where they needed to be.
OK, this is where I take off my thinking cap and wait for the bashing to start........lol

 

[Whiskey]

and yes I would pay a little more for a dealer that would stand behind and support the tractor I bought

 

[BrettW]

Yes, I'd pay more also, but only because I'm a very bad mechanic. (I know most of you'd say I shouldn't have bought a grey with poor mechanical skills, but I got a very good deal on a very good tractor) Anyway, the question is for me; If I can get a mechanic to fix it on occasion and he can tell me what parts I need and I can get them,(and I can get them) then do I really need a dealer markup? Also, what happens when you move as I am in 2 years? All that dealer support and expertise you were depending on and paid for is out the window, unless there is an entire network of real Yanmar grey dealers.

 

[Calpyro]

Roger,
A full service Yanmar dealer? There is no such animal in California. But if there was, it would be a great thing. The closest thing are a few dealers that dabble in Grey market tractors or used to be new Yanmar tractor dealers. I guess that I am lucky because my local JD dealer has stated to me several times that his service department would fix my tractor if I supply the parts. For them, I represent just another paying customer without any of the parts risk.
I guess that I want it both ways, a tractor at a cheap price and a legitimate dealer to pick up the pieces if I break something. However, if there was a legitimate dealer who provided tractors and service, I would probably buy from them over a backyard dealer, even if did cost a little more.

 

[EFC]

“Or does every dealer need to compete head to head on price with the guy who offers nothing but a running tractor at a low dollar.”

Roger that is about it. I employ full time mechanics in the shop and run a field service truck with a full time mechanic in it but I would say most customers don’t care that much about that at all. Without a doubt price is king. There are customers that for them there is value in things beyond the sale but the majority want the most for the least. I can’t blame them I guess....I don’t want to overpay for a product and I like a deal as much as the next guy. There is currently a dealer for every customer and that is great. You can buy a tractor that is complete crap all the way up to a tractor that has been completely rebuilt with a one year warranty. All dealers have to compete with the seasonal seller but a company does not live or die based on its competition. It succeeds or fails based on its management (remember Xerox invented the mouse but gave it away...poor management). I have never worried about who was selling tractors around me...it doesn’t matter. If I have more drive and more ambition than the next guy and make smarter decisions then I will be here as long as I want.
Don’t be to hard on the guy selling out of his yard, we all had to start somewhere and he might actually go a little further to help you than a guy with a big dealership. I know for a fact that I could give more personal attention to each customer back when I started than I can now. Luckily we have this board and guys like Roger who are glad to help no matter who you bought it from.

 

[roger_scotty]

Calpyro, I don't know of any full service dealers for the greys out here either. I have heard of some of the old US Yanmar dealers who still offer full repair service on the models that they sold.... but only on the US models. We could use something similar on the greys.

 

[roger_scotty]

EFC, you say that price is king...and I have to respect that. After all, price is probably why a person looks to the grey market in the first place. Wouldn't it be fun if Yanmars were sold new and had to compete on features rather than on price? .

 

[gatractorman]

Well I'm gonna wade on in an get bashed with you I guess, but I've had the same thought in my mind for a while now, it would really be ridiculous for Yanmar to cut their own throat and not support these tractors with at least parts, the Kubota situation I kinda understand better they dont make tractors for any of the American names, I can see where it would hurt them to support a much cheaper, same badge name tractor, it would hurt new sales but not parts sales, evidently Kubota is concerned with selling new tractors over parts.

 

[gatractorman]

Hey Roger, I cant see why we cant have a full service dealer for grey's what would it take other than a competent mechanic and a parts base, granted you would probably have to import parts from Japan (costly) but with the recent talk of Yanmar cutting off grey parts in the U.S. what other option would you have (I still think Yanmar would be nuts to do this), although we could never get a " Authorized Yanmar Dealer" plaque to go in our shop we could still do service and sell parts couldn't we? Someone with enough forward thinking and $$$ should look into this, find a way to get the parts from Japan economical enough to sell to the grey owners, also a used part business (junkyard) would go hand in hand with this idea, I've got forward thinking just lack the $$$$. LOL