RedDog, in the post you pulled selected wording of mine from, I referred to 3 different minor brands.
One minor brand is sold by a very solid Big 3 dealer. <font color="green"> I would buy a minor brand from this dealer IF I liked the tractor, but after looking them over a couple times, I do not like the tractor, despite its low price </font>
One minor brand is sold by a garden center that specializes in plants, but recently branched out into selling one minor brand of tractors. They are, by any definition a plant center, and they taught the cashier to say "and do you want a tractor with that? . . . I can supersize it for only a few $ more!" <font color="green"> The tractor is not too bad, I'd consider them if they were at a different dealer. Not sure I would buy one, but I would consider one. </font>
One minor brand is sold by a lawn mower repair shop that branched into CUTs and their tractor selection includes one minor brand of tractors. <font color="green"> I like some of the machines from this brand, but would not buy from this dealer. I recommended one to a guy on the phone yesterday, but he lives in Maine. </font>
Now anyone can buy from who they want to buy from. I choose to buy from a quality dealer. My very strong suspicion is that many of the tractor problems I see related to some brands are DEALER issues. Some are probably issues with tolerance and engineering and design.
There was recently a thread asking WHY TO BUY A LAWN TRACTOR FROM A DEALER INSTEAD OF A BIG BOX STORE. I think it was summed up very well by a few posts that stressed that trained technicians put the tractors together, rather than a minimum wage hourly kid. That same theory applies, in spades, to CUTs. So no thank you, I do not want to buy my CUT from a dealer that is not well established, that does not do tractors FIRST instead of as a sideline, and does not employ factory certified mechanics, etc etc etc. Bear in mind I am not criticizing the tractor, but I won't buy ANY brand from a dealer that I cannot trust to support me in the long run. There is a thread active right now, a guy bought a tractor and the dealer told him he is MAY drop the brand so now the guy is scratching his head looking for help. I'm sure he will find another dealer to service him, but at what distance and inconvenience?