I was brought up thinking that "JDGreen" was the only color a tractor came in since my father was the JD dealer. My father sold the dealership and retired 30 years ago. My only experience with a "tractor" up till a year ago was with garden tractors and it was always JD, even then. Suddenly I needed a real tractor and went to the local JD dealer and was disappointed walking away knowing that what I wanted was not what I could afford. A few weeks later I drove through a town in northern Illinois and passed a fledgling Mahindra dealership and saw this sweet looking 4500, fwd, fel, and stopped to inquire about it. Up to then, I never heard of Mahindra. The price was excellent, 0% financing, 3 year bumper to bumper warranty so to speak. I did a little behind the scene research on Mahindra and found that they were setting up facilities in the U.S., they were the #1 seller of tractors in the U.S. under 65 horsepower, and they were actively setting up dealerships in the U.S. I bought the tractor 2 weeks later and the dealer delivered it to my site 210 miles away at no cost. I bought a Wood's 720 brush cutter at the same time.
I've run this tractor ever since with having only one problem with a stupid fuel cap. It has had it's belly in mud pulling logs out of a swamp and didn't get stuck. The fwd is awesome! It has the horsepower whenever I needed it, it has never let me down.
A long story to get to my point. A tractor is a lifelong investment in my book. I will buy a new one (Mahindra again)when this one dies. I would suggest buying more horepower than what you think you need. I suggest getting fwd even if you think you don't need it now. For the initial cost it is worth the investment in my book. The financing and warranty should show you that Mahindra is serious in their product. I could care less in what the resale value is because I'm not selling mine. If you're looking at resale value, don't waste your time buying a tractor - obviously you're not certain you even need one.