dfeck,
How right you are. A dealer will not sell you something if he is going to lose money and a dealer's reputation is just as important as price. When I first started to shop for a Kubota, the nearest dealer was 100 miles away, and he tried to sell me a used tractor for more than another dealer was selling a new one. As I got down to the time to buy, low and behold, a new dealership opened up locally. I went there immediately to check it out. Now, I don't know about what works for most of you, but when I enter a dealership for the first time...regardless of car, tractor, or whatever...I always act like I know nothing about their product. I want them to walk me through it all. This shows me two things, how much they know, and how much I don't know. I always take the wife too, but that is for a different reason. Anyway, this new dealer started out okay, but quickly started a rap that sounded more like a shady used car salesman than a tractor dealer. His BS also had a ring of familiarity that I was trying to place. When we got to price, he was way out of line with everybody else's quotes, except for the next closest dealer. Come to find out, that dealer owned both dealerships. I ended up having to travel a fair shake to get my tractor, but the dealer has been around a long time and was straight from the beginning (made 5 trips there). His price was not quite the best, but was close enough for me...