Chip, If you are only considering the major brands and not the brand x (lower tier equipment) you basically pays your money and takes your chances. I have only owned one tractor but I've seen plenty and talked with many owners. There is good and bad experiences available to hear about regarding all the majors but the actual substantive differences in quality and performance just aren't there.
Like in biology where we learn that organisms competing for the same niche tend to have convergent development and evolution so as to end up very similar even if originally quite dissimilar, tractors tend to become similar in features due to the competition. Even though every so often one or another will try to add some feature to distinguish itself from the pack but if it positively changes the sales numbers then that feature will soom appear in the attribute lists of the other brands. None of these marketing organizations perform in a vacuum. They all keep a watchfull eye on the other guys.
Risking being flamed by some color bigot I'll say the color doesn't really matter and the GREEN ADVANTAGE is a self replicating myth based ever so much more on intangibles and well orchestreated hype than anything you can actually experience in performance, or longivity.
You pay a premium for green and if you sell you get some of it back. If you need an ego boost or bragging rights at the local country club, spit and whittle club, or (fill in the blank) then by all means join the fraternity, buy green and forever help keep the myth alive as a participant in the ongoing conspiracy to perpetuate the green is better myth. Few will admit (even to themselves) that they paid more for nothing more than to be able to be one of the JD guys and bask in the reflected glow of egos attuned to a common cause.
Not knocking JD at all as I believe in general theirs is a good product the equal of Kubota and other top brands, it just isn't superior and it costs more. There are still JD owners and new buyers who mistakenly believe the JD is American made. It isn't. The little tractors are make overseas. For the bigger tractors, the major subassemblies are built off shore and shipped to the US where these large lumps are bolted together into complete tractors. This is a far cry from American made. I stupidly thought I was buying American when I bought my Dodge/Cummins one ton which it turns out was Hecho in Mexico!
I might have actually gone green if it was truly made in the US. For supporting US built products I may have paid a premium. For some sort of entrance into a cult following who are sworn to be loyal to a myth I wouldn't pay 50 cents.
New Holland, MF, Kubota and many other non-green tractors can serve you well. Look carefully at your requirements. It matters not which tractor has more or fewer features if you will never need that feature. Define and refine your requirements! This is not easy! Most of us would rather compare specs and test drive and just about anything but sit down and actually make a list of the firm requirements the tractor has to meet. We'd rather think about all the bells and whistles the sales brochures and sallesmen tout. It is easier but it is bassackwards!
You need to make a list of all your requirements. This does not include nice to haves, it is must haves. Then you need to decide what attributes (features and such) the tractor would have to have to enable you to do all the required activities. Now you look for the most cost efective way to buy a tractor that does all those things. It probably won't be green but it is not impossible, as it depends on your REQUIREMENTS.
Sales organizations do not encourage this sort of activity as it drives you toward the least tractor that can enable you to do all you need to do. They prefer to upsell you to power and features that appeal to your ego and their imaginary mold they want you to see yourself filling.
I have seen folks do this requirements analysis and refinement very vigorously and then when faced with the actual buying decision buy what their ego (coached by experienced sales people) wants.
Short version: All major brands of tractors are good, that is how they got to become and remain major brands. If you have a requirement that can not be met by other brands (unlikely but possible) or need to join a mutual admiration society, then pay the extra and go with a JD.
Pat
