Well, from my experience, it could be a blessing in disguise.
I spent $15,000 of hard earned and saved cash to buy my first CUT a few years ago. I was stupid and blind because I wanted a tractor. Period. I spent more time on TBN than I could imagine, and made up my mind to get a Kubota
B7500. My mind was set on a JD4115, but thet's a whole different gripe. Anyway, I narrowed it down to two dealers, one of which was $1,500 less expensive. I didn't have the money to spare, so I bought the"cheaper" one and have regretted (this portion) of it ever since.
You see, I had problems out of the box. Little ones, not mechanical (like yours), but they always got minimized by the dealer I bought from. To me, $15,000 is waaaay too much to spend on someting and not be satisfied. I'm not petty, but I do expect it to be right from the factory, or to be rectified by the dealer with no gripes... especially if it was their problem in the first place. Yours clearly is a Deere problem... the manufacturer equals the dealer. They should be in your corner. Mine dealer is/was not in my corner.
So, let us boil it down to this...
A tractor is for most of us a long-term investment. Will this dealer perform now when they are trying to sell you a tractor? How about on warranty work? Better yet, how about on work after the warranty runs out? Mine ran me around so long that I bought the "nice guy" routine, and that they were "working" on it. Yeah, woking on it alright... right out of warranty. I never realized the long Kubota warranty was on the tractor/engine... not the attachments/implements.
If they do not offfer you some sort of break on that unit (if you want it), or offer you some sort of discount for your trouble, I would consider other options. You exchanged no signatures and no money. That constitutes no deal. They should have rushed to you with another unit and made that effort to "sell" you a tractor. Instead, it's in the shop and you are not even back to ground zero...you are worse because you are now in a quandry. before, you just wanted to buy a tractor... now you don't know what to do. You didn't own that one you "test drove" and they don't own you. Choose carefully.
I was ignorant. My dealer saved me money, but has cost me in the long run. The old standby "It's out of warranty" claim now prevails. I say... "What about the past X months of me following up with you" and "We are still working on it"? Thanks for dragging it out, guys. In all, what I am really discouraged about is what I will face down the road when I have to take it in for some major service that I cannot perform myself. It won't go back there... that's for sure. I'd rather "assume the position" for a dealer I didn't buy the tractor from rather than the the dealer who took my money and now spits in my face. Funny thing is, the small dealer's reputation is catching up with it, and I will do everything I can to help it along. Don't make the same mistake I did. Check your options. Maybe an extended warranty IF you go with the unit you drove. A discount on some attachments for your hassles?
