What encourages you to buy a John Deere?

[slaveToHorses]

Had to laugh at the post that said green was their wife's favorite color!
Turns out, each time I have purchasee a tractor, my wife heavily petitions for another Deere. She really doesn't like orange or red and isn't particularly fond of the New Holland blue, although it is her second choice.

Don't hold your breath about JD contact us for opinions. I have yet to find a reliable way to give them feedback. They are not very advanced in that regard, or they value their firewall...

 

[Zephrant]

I wasn't sure why I decided I wanted a JD, but I was pretty firm on it- so much so that I didn't even look at the others. After I bought the 2210 I started noticing all the green toys around the house (two kids). I've got JD tractors, gators, and misc. toys all over the place and the kids love it.

So maybe their "Getting them young" corporate plan is working....

The funny thing is that one of the few toys I have left from my childhood is a small Ford tractor.

 

[cbturf]

It was the JD rep that started this thread!

 

[nedly05]

We have always run JD in the family excavating biz. We have multiple pieces of JD iron, so naturally when it came time to replace our rubber tired backhoe we went to deere. The new 410-G we got was nothing but a big dissapointment, 3 times broke down on the side of the road before 50 hrs, and once in the pit. The problems have since been resolved and the machine is fine now. Then I bought a skid steer a JD 317. Before 3 hrs of use (carrying snow) was put on it one side quit moving, turned out to be a jam nut on the stop for the travel lever was never tightened. Then a hydraulic leak formed on the front left wheel where the hub bolts to the chassis, turns out the gasket was never put in place. The dealer took the machine back and went through it to make sure it was not going to mess up again and found that only one gasket had been put on of the four. Ive had no more trouble since then with it and the dealers have been excellent to me.

So when it came time to get my own tractor, I called JD naturally and the cost of a 45 HP with a loader was $38,000 so theres no question why I didnt buy a deere, it wasnt worth the chance for that price. About three weeks ago a customer of ours called and said that he couldnt get his 45 HP deere tractor to start, and since I helped him out with tractor problems in the past and I was interested in that size tractors I took a ride up and helped him get his machine going, turned out to be a fuel issue. I was flabbergasted at the plastic on the thing, 38 grand for something that has plastic holding the hood on? No thanks! Sorry for the rant, these are just my experiences and opinions, please do not take offense to this post!!!

 

[Karl2]

Don't hold your breath about JD contact us for opinions.

Like someone else mentioned the thread was started by a member who works for JD

Computer hardware manufacturers started the trend of having some of their staff enlist on independent Internet forums (rather than stick with the company's official support forum) where their wares were being discussed because it's the most direct way to get genuine candid feedback from a large number of users who can post without fear of having their posts edited should the manufacturer not like what they have to say as it often happens on official support forums.

Since then it's become common practice for manufacturers of certain expensive or complex goods to have some of their people participate on large forums dedicated to their product(s). I have yet to encounter a serious manufacturer who doesn't value such user feedback because coming up with the features that potential customers want most before the competition does is where the money's at. Ignoring forums even when negative posts abound would be irresponsible. For example I'm sure JD is now well aware that many of its customers are having fuel gauge issues and will take steps to avoid the problem on future tractors and, who knows, perhaps even fix ours

 

[RollingsFarms]

We have always run JD in the family excavating biz. We have multiple pieces of JD iron, so naturally when it came time to replace our rubber tired backhoe we went to deere. The new 410-G we got was nothing but a big dissapointment, 3 times broke down on the side of the road before 50 hrs, and once in the pit. The problems have since been resolved and the machine is fine now. Then I bought a skid steer a JD 317. Before 3 hrs of use (carrying snow) was put on it one side quit moving, turned out to be a jam nut on the stop for the travel lever was never tightened. Then a hydraulic leak formed on the front left wheel where the hub bolts to the chassis, turns out the gasket was never put in place. The dealer took the machine back and went through it to make sure it was not going to mess up again and found that only one gasket had been put on of the four. Ive had no more trouble since then with it and the dealers have been excellent to me.

So when it came time to get my own tractor, I called JD naturally and the cost of a 45 HP with a loader was $38,000 so theres no question why I didnt buy a deere, it wasnt worth the chance for that price. About three weeks ago a customer of ours called and said that he couldnt get his 45 HP deere tractor to start, and since I helped him out with tractor problems in the past and I was interested in that size tractors I took a ride up and helped him get his machine going, turned out to be a fuel issue. I was flabbergasted at the plastic on the thing, 38 grand for something that has plastic holding the hood on? No thanks! Sorry for the rant, these are just my experiences and opinions, please do not take offense to this post!!!

my experience was just the opposite of yours. when i was pricing ag utility tractors i found that Deere was cheaper then anyone else(when you compared standard options, specs, hp, etc). when i say cheaper i dont mean by $1 or 2, i'm talking by $1,000 AT LEAST i agree those compact tractors are quite pricey, but when you step up to the ag tractors, Mother Deere holds her own quite well as far as price competivness goes.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Two years ago I bought a new JD 5105. My reasons were the quality of engineering, the apparent sturdiness, the dealer, and a price that seemed like a deal.

Two years later, I think the engineering is very good, and the sturdiness is rock solid. I am not very happy with the dealer, even though at the time it seemed like the best of six or seven dealers I had visited, and I realize that the value proposition of JD isn't the best unless you use stuff very hard and keep it for decades. I also bought several JD implements at the same time and have been disappointed with all of them, as well as the dealer's refusal to fix what are to me obvious design or manufacturing issues that caused partial failures (LX6 tailwheel, various aspects of a Frontier rear blade, both of them rated for more hp than my tractor).

If I were doing it over again, for my uses, I would probably have bought another brand, from a different dealer, and gone aftermarket for all my implements.

 

[Karl2]

I didn't even buy my tractor new -it had 600 hours- but almost 300 hours of hard use later I haven't had a single serious issue with it which is a little surprising considering it had obviously not been maintained properly by the previous owner and not detailed by the middleman dealership (not a JD dealership) who sold it to me: the tractor was filthy inside and out when delivered, there were mud cakes and pine needles wedged everywhere, hydraulic fluid was two gallons short, engine oil level was very low, hydraulic fluid level in front axle must have been down to a few ounces and headlights had been disconnected. Plus there were some pieces of equipment I had been charged for that were missing: external rear view mirrors, beacon and CD player. I got some money back but I had to insist. Fortunately I checked liquids before operating the machine.

Despite all this the tractor has been working flawlessly, probably because the previous owner did not have it long enough to wreck it (16 months). The only "failure" I experienced was when it failed to start after running out of fuel. At that point the fuel gauge was showing a half tank and I didn't know the gauge was faulty so I wasn't suspecting I had starved it. This only happened once anyway. Sure the gauge issue is annoying but it's a minor problem, certainly not enough to make me dislike JD. Heck even seeing "Error 8" every time I start the tractor doesn't bother me. It's just computer bugs. Snow removal is not suited for most automated modes so having one (LoadMatch) not working leaves me cold, I wouldn't be using it anyway. Last but not least the tractor only uses half as much fuel as expected

As for the implements, except for the FEL and bucket that came with it they are not from JD. No offense but Maine snow calls for more serious snow removal equipment than that available from tractor manufacturers, and a lot of it has to be customized for the tractor model it's going to be used on rather than made to fit a wide range of models. Most of this stuff comes from dedicated manufacturers.

 

[jenkinsph]

Have had several Deeres in the past and it all started with my first larger tractor a 4020 diesel wide front. Liked it so much I added a 3020 diesel and a 450 dozer and later a 2240. Now with some landscaping and side work I have an 820 diesel and a 110tlb that said I have had lots of others but other than Case the other tractors haven't been as trouble free. That is very important to me. If the price is right I plan to buy a new 4x20 cab tractor this month.


Steve

 

[YesDeere]

That is all my Grandparents and parents ever owned. Mostly lawn mowers, Except for two that were on hunting properties(Midsize and old, one a 69 other an 85). None of these machines have had a failure besides normal wear.(Battery tire belt) So the decision was easy. Hel* just recently my father moved and asked me if I wanted our old 1969 110 that I learned to mow on. It hadn't been run forever. Called the Deere dealer three miles away and they had a carbuerater kit in stock........runs great. Hows that for product support