At stop two I went primarily to look at Kioti. I just didn't think Mahindra was going to be cost competitive. I know the owner. I'd met him a few times before. He's the brother-in-law of a friend. He had me working with his sales guy Buford. I had demoed the Deere 3025 and really liked it. The controls were intuitive, the functions were smooth and the machine seemed somewhat refined. The bucket control was acceptable, but not ideal. I was pretty sure when I left that I was going to come back to it.

I tried the Kioti CK2610. It shuddered at start up, coughed smoke and idled rough. The bucket controls were very sticky. At first I had to muscle them. Same with the HST. They eased up after use. Something about it seemed crude in comparison to the Deere. Less intuitive. The seat was a suspension seat and it was SWEET.

I almost left without looking at a Mahindra 1526 because the price Buford worked up was too high. I demoed it anyway. I liked it pretty well. I thought the Deere felt a bit better. I can't really quantify it, it just did. I liked the Mahindra well enough to buy it, but not at the price they were asking. It was a good bit higher than the JD. I thanked Buford for his time and was leaving to go to Kubota when I passed the owner David.

I told him that Buford tried, but the numbers weren't quite right. He asked me to give him a few minutes. He spun up some numbers and we came out at $18,500 for the tractor, 5' blade and 5 foot cutter. Insurance would be just a tad over $1,000 for 60 months of coverage. We made the deal.

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