Question, buying Used or New?????

[Big Wave D]

1 more payment left and it's mine and no regrets about my purchase.

-Jim

Congrats on reaching a lower level of nirvana for tractor owning, PAID FOR! :thumbsup:

May you get many, many more years of trouble free use.

 

[TripleR]

I bought new - here's why:

1) After doing much research on what I needed for what I planned to do I spent about 3 months checking the local used market and couldn't find anything that wasn't either high hours or almost new price.

2) It was my first ever tractor of any kind and I didn't know squat about how to evaluate a used machine. Plus I didn't know anybody who did that I could take along with me.

3) Gritted my teeth & went to green & orange dealerships and liked what I saw at both. Also liked the dealerships - so different from buying a car.

4) Really liked the 0% financing as money has been tight.

3 years later; never needed the warranty, but had it just in case. 1 more payment left and it's mine and no regrets about my purchase.

-Jim

Congratulations on having one more payment left; nothing like tat feeling and you still have many, many years of use left in it.

 

[Mousefield]

Big Wave D
Also, consider yourself quite fortunate for having such an 'understanding' woman.

Wife bought it for me for my birthday 2 years ago. She just happened to know exactly what to get me. :dance1: :cool2: :cloud9:

 

[Big Wave D]

Wife bought it for me for my birthday 2 years ago. She just happened to know exactly what to get me. :dance1: :cool2: :cloud9:

And HOW exactly did this miracle come to be????? Did you have your bedroom papered with brochures that had the options you wanted circled. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

That's fantastic though.

I little less costly, but my family bought me an auto-darkening welding helmet for this past Father's Day.

I'd never said one word. I was genuinely touched.

 

[buck12]

If money was not an object I would always buy new. However I buy used somtimes because I can save a few bucks that can be used for other things. I bought my tractor used with about 220 hours, I bought a used lawnmower, and my wifes last couple of cars were slightly used. My last two trucks were bought new because I could not find a good used truck equiped the way I wanted. When buying used one has to do thier homework and shop carefully.

 

[D7E]

I think the ideal age to buy a tractor is at a few years old with just a couple of thousand hours on them as they've done the biggest part of their depreciating and have had any faults or updates done by then . I've had new tractors that were a lot more trouble than than what it replaced , And far worse as tractors got more electronics and computers in them and to be honest i find the mechanical breakdowns of a 20 year old tractor to be less than the electrical ones of a new one.
These days i don't like any thing newer than early "90's" as this way there is never any need to have a dealer work on it.

 

[exiled]

I've read a lot of posts about people having problems with their tractors and asking for advice on solving their problem. I think it is awesome that this site exists to help people in their time of need.

However, these posts have gotten me to thinking:

If money were NOT a deciding factor, which route are you more likely to take, Used or New?????

I'll go first.

For me it's most likely I'll be buying used. Something with around 100+ hours or so. I feel like a tractor has been "sorted out" by this time. Yes, something can still go wrong, but if I've really done my homework, I feel confident in my purchase.

I've purchased mostly used equipment and vehicles during my lifetime that have offered me many years of faithful and maintenance free service. Besides, I buy a tractor to be used and every little new scrape, dent, or nick in the paint is like a little part of me dying.

On the flip side, I can somewhat see the point of a person buying New because of the warranty, but I've also read enough threads to know that the warranty is only as good as the 'warrant-er'. Sadly, in many cases, they are worth less than the paper they are written on. That new seat smell just isn't a big enough motivator to me to pull the trigger on a New machine.

So, what about the rest of you. Where do you fall on this topic of conversation? Are you taking the New route or the Used route and why?????

If money is no option I'm buying brand new w/ extended warranty. Your not going to get deal on a 100 hour used tractor. You might not believe this but I've seen new tractors cheaper than 100 hour tractors. Sure rebates was the reason why. I bought a 10 year old tractor w/ 1400 hrs on it cvause I was buying a few pieces of equiment at the time and could'nt afford new. I have no regrets. Next tractor will be new.

 

[1950T]

bigD i still think id buy used. they just arent building the big powerhouse farm tractors like they used to. besided they arent building oliver's anymore :laughing:

last new tractor i looked at was a NH t8000 series. nice tractor but for $148k it cant do anything my old iron cant. plenty of power and all of that but allso more electronics to go wrong. electronic gremlins are the devil on a working farm

 

[poldies4]

I didn't mean to mislead anyone. I'm not in the market at the moment for a tractor. I have a Kubota L-35 TLB and a B6200e. These are more than enough tractor to handle my needs for the moment.

Why I posed the question was for future reference. As a previous poster stated, "my tractor(s) are going to outlive me(if taken well care of)"

The 0% finance thing is a powerful incentive, no doubt. I can see the point of using their money and not your own. I just don't know if that alone would cause me to go against my usual nature.

I wasn't trying to compare buying a car/truck to buying a tractor, TOTALLY different experiences. Yes, tractors hold their value far better and patience IS a virtue when it comes to the tractor buying experience. My only point bringing this up is I've bought used for both and not been burned by the choice of going used.

I guess I didn't state my real question very well. I'll try again.

Do you feel better about your purchase because it's new with a Warranty, or does buying used make you feel like that tractor has gone through its 'inaugural shakedown cruise'? Therefore, if something wasn't quite right when brand new, it's been found and addressed.

As I said before, I seem to believe that latter is working in my favor.

I've really enjoyed everyone's input. Who knows, by the time I make my next tractor purchase, maybe I'll be convinced that new is the way to go.

Keep the good advice coming. I'm sure there are some lurkers pondering this very question and this will only help them along their path to ownership. :thumbsup:

I knew that I would buy every tractor out there if my wife would have let me. In the real world I knew that I would get 1 tractor, better make it the one. After almost 4 years of trying to find a deal that obviously didn't exist, except the scams on CL. I'm not the type who prefers wrenching on things, and like the warranty idea when spending that much money. All this with 0% made the decision easy for me. At least in my area SCUT tractors are priced at a premium, so finding a used unit that did not have lots of hours/abuse was near impossible. They were all priced withing a few thousand of new. Even the non-dealer ones were ridiculous.

 

[Chilly807]

I was pretty much in the same boat as Baby Grand:

I shopped for a year or so, got tired of looking at either older beat-to-death tractors, or newer stuff priced a thousand dollars less than brand new. For a thousand dollars, I'm having a warranty and my a** is the only one that's been in that seat.

The funny thing is, the tractor's the newest piece of machinery we have, including house, cars, etc. My cars are used these days, I put a lot of miles on and they're worth nothing after 5 or 6 years.

I'm young enough that I hope to be driving the same tractor 25 years from now, so I want the best years out of it. I may end up trading before that, but that's not the plan now.

Sean