Since this thread was mentioned in another in discussing Kubota's failure to respond to customers, I thought I'd update everyone on my RTV1100. I picked it up on 8/10/07 and first contacted the dealer and Kubota on 8/12/07 about defective welds and a misaligned driver's side door frame. It's now been 16 months later and I've contacted Kubota and my dealer at least a dozen times about this problem. I've sent them pictures, posted pictures, called regional managers, hauled it to my dealer for Kubota regional managers to see the poor quality and I've never received one single response from Kubota on making good on their defective product.
As I mentioned earlier, I bought my last tractor from another manufacturer because of the complete and total disconnect between Kubota and their customers. After 16 months of wasted time trying to get Kubota to make good on repairing or replacing their defective product, I give up. When I have time, I'll just take the dam door frame off and cut it apart, straighten it, and weld it back together correctly. Like Slippy, I'm done with Kubota. They make a good product, but I've never experienced such poor customer support as exhibited by Kubota. Their standard M.O. is to give you the run-around for months and then just flat out ignore you. I'm not out of warranty but this is a problem that I contacted them about the 2nd day I owned the product.
Similar to the drive shaft rattle, make sure you are okay with severe rattling issues if you opt for the high air intake for an RTV. When under throttle driving down a smooth paved road you can't carry on a conversation inside the cab because the high air intake rattles so loudly that you can't hear each other. I contacted my dealer about this problem and they called Kubota. At first they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about (standard Kubota denial). Finally they admitted that it rattles like a SOB but more or less told me "tough". The dealer said that he can't take back used parts because Kubota won't reimburse him.
I feel that I've been extremely patient with Kubota and Kubota has proven to me that they have absolutely no intention of responding to customer complaints. They already lost me as a tractor customer over failing to respond to issues. Now they've lost me as a customer for any of their products. This RTV1100 will be my last Kubota product. Like Slippy, Kubota will not be a manufacturer I shop for future purchases of utility vehicles, tractors or mowers. Thanks for nothing Kubota. Other manufacturers seem happy to take my money and I've even had an opportunity to see how another manufacturer responded to a minor problem like I've had with Kubota. There's no comparison. The other manufacturer went out of their way to make sure that their customer was taken care of. I guess this post is to state that, for me, just making a quality product isn't enough for me. If you, as a manufacturer, completely ignore me and refuse to take care of any issue with your product, I'm simply not interested in purchasing anything from you in the future.
