Well, I just took delivery of a tractor on Friday. We ended up buying a place with less acreage than what I was hoping for so we went with a smaller tractor than 75hp.
I pretty well narrowed it down to New Holland or Mahindra to have the features I wanted. The closest Mahindra dealership lost my business when I called and left 3 messages for a sales rep to call me and had 0 return calls. The next closest Mahindra dealer didn't have the model I wanted (6065) but did have the next model up (6075). He did offer a good price (47-ish IIR) but that was more tractor than I needed and more money than I wanted to spend and would have taken several thousand more to get the buddy seat and 3rd function added. He said that it would probably be more than 6 months before he got a 6065 back in stock.
My nearest New Holland dealer (H & R Agripower in Lawrenceburg, TN) was incredibly responsive and easy to work with. My rep didn't have what I wanted on his lot but he found one and got it there within 2 weeks. I ended up getting a New Holland Workmaster 55. They quoted me 39k cash or 42k with 0% for 5 years, which was better than anything I saw online except for one place in Georgia that had the same pricing.
I've only put a few hours on it doing some light loader work moving stuff around the place, but so far I love it. I didn't look at the Powerstar series in person, but if the Workmaster is the economy line, I can't imagine how nice a Powerstar must be. Fit and finish of the interior is great in my opinion. It's more quiet and more comfortable than my old Kubota M9540. Didn't know that an air ride seat would make such a difference over mechanical.
It came with a buddy seat factory and it's roomy and comfy as far as buddy seats go. My boy loves riding shotgun with me and I love having him involved with the chores and getting to spend some extra time with him.
The loader is smooth. One thing I didn't realize is that the 3rd function that I had NH dealer install is actually just a 3rd function diverter and not a true 3rd function. Not a big deal really and my fault for not getting it cleared up on the front end, but for a 1750 dollar add on, I thought it would be a true 3rd function.
Dealer did advise that I don't put put around and run it at 1200 rpm or higher to prevent clogging of the DOC. This is a small adjustment, but not too annoying. They also advised running it with a diesel additive to help provide additional lubrication to internal components. Official time between oil change from NH is 600 hours, but they advised initial oil change at 100 and every 200-300 hours or annually thereafter.
Too soon to tell how I will like it in the long run, but I'm really liking it so far. Thanks for all the discussion and advice that helped me get here.
Edit to add: One feature that I also like is that when warranty runs out, I looks like I can remap the ECU and crank it up it to a 75hp. The 55, 65, and 75 are all identical except for engine programming. So when I get a bigger place in a few years, I won't necessarily need to buy a bigger tractor right away.