Buying Advice New buyer, looking for some advice.

[dodge man]

1. Maybe. My experience is there is less haggling then a car. For example my purchase of a John Deere 2025r I did not ask them to lower their price. Before hand I got on the JD website and they have a “build your own” section, so before hand I had an idea of list price. The salesman was very upfront and on the sales sheet showed JD rebates and the amount the dealership discounted the tractor. Be fore the COVID thing hit, I woukd say a rough rule of thumb is 10% off of list. I’m not sure you can count on that now?

2. A good dealer will work on your tractor even if you bought it elsewhere. Will they? Will they punish you for buying else where? You never know.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

I haggled with my dealer multiple times when making the deal. Also getting quotes from other dealers that were much closer, and using dealer pricing against dealer pricing. Whoever made the best deal won my business. We haggled over everything, including the delivery fee (the closest dealer was 350 miles away, the furthest was 650 miles away). Guess who made the deal? The furthest dealer, beating the closet by $1500

He discounted two implements (a heavy box blade and a medium duty PHD) to $50 over his cost. He split the estimated delivery cost, costing me only $600, but ate another $1,000 cost to him. I ended up adding some of that savings back to him by having them install 2 pairs of rear remotes at dealer cost. He threw in the filters needed for the 50 hour service.

I repaid his good deal to me by referring 3 other people to him, each one purchased a tractor. His good faith to me returned trifold to him!

Not every dealer will be as gracious.... the only tractor dealers local to me (JD, Kub, and Mahindra) were Quoting prices 15-20% HIGHER than the "build your tractor" sites. They wouldn't budge at all! They lost out on a bunch of business.....

He will get my future business .... I have already purchased the 250 hour service stuff from him, plus a backhoe thumb. He EARNED that business....

 

[MadGunner]

Agree with LS mt125 owner!

I pursued the lowest cost dealer that had in-stock equipment available to sell, and that turned out to be a dealer further away than my original preferred choice. I believe most if not all the major tractor brands have established policies that a dealer should honor the warranty for the same brand tractor, no matter which dealer processed the original sale. If there are any dealers on TBN, they can comment to confirm or describe differences. Of course, this is a free country, and a dealer need not take your business. A dealer would be foolish to turn away business just because you bought from a different dealer... But, some dealers are small and susceptible to emotion. Warranty work is often paid by the manufacturer to the dealer in credits, not actual cash, so a dealer that doesn't move much volume may not need your warranty work (earning cash thru sales of other products), so turning you away out of spite isn't beyond the realm of possibilities... but any such dealers should get negative reviews on Google, Yelp, etc.

COVID has caused a lot of things to slip sideways. The nearest dealer isn't especially happy with me, as I'm in their territory but bought from a dealer that was further away. Unfortunately, the nearest dealer had no estimated delivery date for the tractor, while the further dealer that moves more volume received equipment within weeks and was ready to close the sale. Two months had past with the nearest dealer and still waiting on a tractor to be in-stock. Who to blame? Is the customer rotten for buying from a dealer further away, or is the manufacturer not doing the right thing by providing limited stock to the dealers that move the most merchandise, leaving the smaller dealers in a hard spot? I blame the Chinese Virus for all this madness. Hopefully, the nearest dealer won't carry a grudge into 2021 as COVID fades and sales return to normal. I'd much prefer to get any warranty work done nearby, versus making the long drive to the dealer that sold the tractor. Meanwhile, routine service checks and other non-warranty-work can be pursued at most any tractor mechanic shop, not just the dealership, and much of the routine maintenance you can perform yourself, and order parts online.

I view tractor dealerships a lot like automobile dealerships, although most are smaller in scale.

 

[metalbender]

If the closer dealer is decent, they should be able to do a dealer transfer.

 

[jeff9366]

I am in the market for a new (or used) tractor.
I have been looking at a 40 HP New Holland Boomer (or Workmaster) because that is what my brother in law has and I think it will work.

You are in Georgia where Kubota has three large manufacturing plants plus warehouses. Parts and service for Kubotas in Georgia should be exemplary.

 

[3me2]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Since I have no way to transport the tractor and did not want to spend too much hauling it around when it needs repairs, I decided to buy from the local John Deere place. I got a new 3038E for under 26K. It gets delivered next week. I was looking at bigger tractors but thanks to input here, I realized that I would be fine with a smaller tractor. I am not concerned about the time I have to spend on it. Even though we have a lot of acreage, only about 20 of it needs to be maintained. The rest is pine trees.
Now it is time to read the forums on maintenance and such...

 

[K5lwq]

Congratulations! You made a good choice! Post pictures when you get it home.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Congratulations on the tractor! You got a really good price too! When I was shopping a few years ago, the local JD wanted almost that price for a 1025R! Post some pics when you get it.... if no pics it didn't happen!