Only somewhat related here in that it's another JD loss to Kubota. The JD dealer in Gulfport MS has a large billboard kinda right in the middle of their lot. For the longest time they leased that billboard. Their manager decided one day that it was a waste of money since the sea of green surrounding it was eye catching enough. So down came the billboard. Quite to the surprise of the dealer, up went a Lee Tractor (Kubota) billboard almost immediately. Ooops, they hadn't thought about that scenario.
Good for them...
Here locally, we had a JD dealership that lasted good part of a century. JD evidently doesn't like those small dealers, squeezed this guy into selling out to a big regional dealer. That big dealer is about like described earlier, milking all the cash they can, whereas the small dealer was always about helping his customers. He had personal relationship with his customers. Lot of us were pizzed off by that power play, as we liked the family dealership and the dealer.
It looks like that's a great way for JD to facilitate sales of more and more red and orange tractors in this area....
And, they deserve it. I'm running green, but won't replace green with green..... I have local mechanics that keep me going, try to say away from those money grabbers who could care less about us like the other guy did.
An example, I burned up the slip clutch on my Bush Hog. Those guys would only sell me a "kit" for a "C" note, when all I wanted was two discs. Their kit included a set of springs. Nothing wrong with my springs, didn't need all that, just the discs. I found some on line for peanuts compared to a hundred bucks, rebuilt it myself.
DF
