My biggest fear that I think I have articulated at least 2 times before in this thread is about the life of the hydro systems. The transmission/hydro system will be taking a beating and work hard being that there does not exist a semi level spot of ground within 30 miles of the Pittsburgh Pa area. You going up or your going down... or your floating level in a river. Car tires don't last hear like in most of the country. Fuel economy sucks here compared to most of the country. Lawn and Garden tractor hydro units start to whine loudly and stop working fairly quick here compared to the rest of the country. These are facts of life :-(
One topic that I do not see folks comparing on these sub compacts is the individual hydro unit, axle unit and general drivetrain component list and determine who uses the very best rated parts. When you look at Hydr Gear or Tuff Torq units in Yard or in Garden tractors you start to realize that not all Garden or Yard tractors are created equally. Some are built with the bigger and higher rated parts and others are built around much smaller/weaker/cheaper axles/transmissions. I would assume that between Massey, LS, Kubota, Deere, Mahindra and New Holland Sub Compacts that there has to varying levels of drive train components available to the manufactures?
Another assumption I have is that these will all be sourced with higher end contractor/professional engines rather than retail/consumer grade junk like my Kohler Courage that has an EPA median hours to failure rating of 500 hours? 500 hours of trouble free service does not impress me, I want to hear about 5,000 hours of trouble free service, or even 10,000 hours.