Why I avoid Mother Deere

My 24 year old 750 compact needs it's first set of brake shoes.

Mother Deere: $212.98 per side, or $425.96

Compact Tractor Parts: $23.95 each or $95.80

Questions anyone?

(quoted from post at 01:59:08 07/27/12) My 24 year old 750 compact needs it's first set of brake shoes.

Mother Deere: $212.98 per side, or $425.96

Compact Tractor Parts: $23.95 each or $95.80

Questions anyone?

Click to expand...

On this side of the pond, and this is only repeating what I was told buy a local poophead farmer (organic farmer that gets double subsidies as a normal farmer)....

Said Deere has a program that gives BIG rebates on it's equipment to BIO (organic) farmers... Anyway, this guy has about 60 acres in grass & grain and maybe 20 or so of fruit trees. And 80 or so dairy cows. Got his subsidy check this year and went in with cash and bought a brand new Mercedes Van, new JD tractor, new JD round baler, and a wrapping machine for silage bales..... You's paying them big prices so guys like him don't have to....
His business what he does with his money but he rubs it in everyone's face, buys/rents land out from under people cause he get's twice as much from the government so can outbid the normal guy without taking a loss, yadda yadda.... Sad part is, the guys he is knocking out are paying his way every time they pay taxes.....

Dam,,,,, you made me vent.. Sorry.

Get your brakes fixed...

[i:654c4848f0]Get your brakes fixed... [/i:654c4848f0]

Got to, I'm running out of trees..."8^)

4 chunks of firewood... tie a rope to each and lay em on the frt and back of each fender... just knock one off when ya wanna stop.... You prolly got that stuff layin around the place......

Fenders???

Try Agco, CIH, NH or Cat for similar parts, If they even stock them. Mother Deere won"t cost more.
Some of those discount parts are identical
............some are not.

Dave2,

Sometimes OK to vent...'specially when it's true. Same deal on this side of the pond.

yep,thats why i finaly stopped running them. but the others in reality are not too far behind.

Yup. Got a friend who is a parts manager for TWO Case-IH dealers (owned by the same guy). He showed me a few parts that both Case-IH and Deere use - same EXACT part, except for paint. The ones painted green were twice the price.

Not if you went to the local Case IH dealer here.

Such things are to be expected with socialism.

Dean

Thats why I give up on JD, I like their stuff, but the parts will break you..PTO coupler repair kit, $23 same kit TSC $2.91

You can buy an auxilliary brake system for most tractors at a yacht club or boat center for less than that.
They work good on soft soil but not so well on black top.

Our local mega dealer is a real a$$hole.The first thing they did when 'absorbing' the old dealer last year was to get rid of ANYTHING that did not say "John Deere" on it.That was the stuff that brought me in the door!then they dont want to talk to you unless you are there to buy a new'hi dollar' piece of iron.All/most of the old long term employees have left...

just an idea as i personally have not worked on a 750, but im assuming the tractor has some kind of brake shoes, not disc, if you can find a good auto parts store, like Napa or Carquest, chances are they have done some specialty brake shoes, like on antique vehicles or some odd ball machinery, so they will know who does brake shoe relining, you can contact them and buy a kit, the kit will contain shoe material, and rivets to install them, you need to final cut the material to proper size for your needs, YOU WILL NEED TO WEAR A RESPIRATOR, using a right angle grinder generally, then grind off any old brake shoe material and clean the rivet holes in the shoe backing plate attach the brake material using the supplied rivets and reinstall on the tractor, the stuff is usually reasonably priced and sometimes its the only option of antique stuff ,option 2 if you can get by without the tractor for a week or so is to just send them your existing shoes and let them reline them for you, they will quote you a price, and probably be much cheaper then deere just thought id mention it

I"m not gonna say much,except you have a short memory and don"t remember how bad I get my azz kicked everytime I say anything to insult the religeon of the Deere do you? lol

Aw come on now,you copied that right from one of my old posts. lol

To Fawteen and the others that like to bad mouth JD why don't you take just save us all the whining and go buy something else. Then you can complain about that brand!!!!!! Your JD 750 is just a YANMAR so go by one direct. Then you can complain about MOTHER YANMAR!!!

I buy parts for just about all the different brands out there. JD is no better or worse than any of the rest. NH parts are just about the same as JD an its takes them three days to get anything that I can have here the next day at JD. I actually have had the high price shock on AGCO parts more so than the other brands. On a Oliver three point pin they wanted $89 dollars and the part was three dollars at Farm&Fleet. I just returned it and paid the restocking fee. PLUS I thanked the guy at the counter for his service but I just could not justify the extra cost for a simple part. I did not stand there an cry and whine.

As far as dealership treatment. I think JD and CIH are both pushing the MEGA store thing too far. It is easy when you are selling everything you can build like the last 3-4 years have been but I think the cliff is coming and those Mega stores will crash and burn. Lets see how they do with two hundred 200K combines that don't sell for 3-4 years. That has a real possibility of happening.

As for the treatment at individual stores. I have good relationships with all the local stores. I also try to make the guys life easier at the parts/service counter. I try to look my parts up before I even go in. I also don't waste their time if they are real busy.

I have been on the other side of the counter when someone comes in for a small item and then stands there complaining that it is too high a price. The part may only have been a few dollars but they complain that they used to buy it for a few pennies. I made darn sure the next time they came in I did not have anything they wanted. Was that right?? Not really but it is human nature. Does anyone really want to help a cry baby tight wad??? NO.

So to the guys that want to run JD and other brands down. GO SOME WHERE ELSE AND BUY THAT BRAND. There are plenty of customers that like the product and parts that JD and others sell. We will keep them going. You guys just go and make someone else MISERABLE!!!!

That's nothing! I just called for a price on a little 4" long, 3/4" dia. shaft that holds the bar onto the star wheel on an old 851 rake.

Now, granted I'm happy they even HAVE parts available for such an old rake

But with them asking THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS for that $10 part, they might as well NOT stock it.

What's the point? Is ANYBODY in their right mind EVER going to buy that?

I just don't get it.

I talked to a Deere parts guy awhile back and he told me a few things that Deere does that I know drive up the cost of their parts. Ultimately it's up to the dealership to set te final price on a part, but Deere tells them how many of said part they have to stock to be in compliance as a dealer. That said, one thing that makes Deere parts so expensive is the amount of inventory the dealership has to keep. For instance Deere will have the same, identical part under 5 different part numbers and the minimum number of parts on hand is 10. For the dealership this means that if the part costs them $100 that instead of only having $500 tied up in parts on the shelf, because of Deere's requirements they now have $2500 worth of the same part sitting there, just under different part numbers. Extend this problem out over 10 different parts and now the dealership has $25,000 worth of parts sitting there. If they are going to have their money tied up like that they have to charge a premium on parts just to cover their overhead costs.

Then there is the fact that Deere has their products split up between so many dealerships it isn't funny. There are commercial dealers, ag dealers, construction dealers, homeowner product dealers, etc, etc. Then among those dealer classifications the individual dealership has to pay 'royalties' to carry the different lines within that catagory. For instance an ag dealer has to pay to carry each sub catagory like combines, cotton pickers, sprayers, etc, etc, etc. In other words you can buy a Deere compact tractor or a 500 HP Deere tractor, or a Gator, and you can't get parts for all three at the same dealership. In fact it goes against the dealerships contract with Deere to even carry parts for a product line they haven't paid the royalty to carry. So, you can have three different machines, all Deere green, and you'll have to go to three different dealerships to get parts for each one of them. Think how much time and money could be saved by the customer if they could simply go to one dealership, and order all of the parts they needed for all of their equipment....like most other brands do....

In the end all brands have their problems nowdays and the biggest one nowdays, bar none, is corprate greed.........

One time I broke a speciality hydraulic fitting on my dozer. I looked it up on jdparts.deere.com and my jaw hit the floor when I saw it was $50. The kind of fitting that should cost $2 if it was a commodity fitting. I set to work trying to find (or find parts to build) a fitting that would work as a replacement. Searched the internet, called around to a bunch of hydraulics places, but the only solution would have been to have a machinist make one. By that time I had wasted hours and in reflection, I should have just payed the $50 right away because I did anyway in the end. The dozer is almost half a century old and they're still providing parts support, so there's something to be said for that too.

I have had just as many price shocks buying parts for my New Holland baler, so I don't think Deere is alone in the racket. Someone once told me that Deere only builds new equipment to drum up support it's main business

Good post Wayne.
Except for the last line. That ruined it.
Made me wonder if you know what a corporation is and what a corporation does.
John Deere is not in the business to make tractors. They are not in business to give jobs or benefits to employees.
John Deere, like all corporations, is in business to make money for the stock holders.
There are thousands and thousands of stock holders in big companies like John Deere.
Some are direct holders of stock, some own stock in their mutual funds.
You, your sister, mother, pastor, neighbor, children and friends can own JD stock and maybe do in your mutual funds.
And I'll bet every one of you expect to see your fund grow. If it doesn't grow you will likely sell it off and buy something that does show a profit.
So getting back to your last sentence, who is it really that is greedy?
And is your sister, et al, really greedy or does she just want a decent return on her investment?

We are lucky there is a tractor junk dealer near here they have both new and used parts. We can get new parts for about half of what the dealer wants for them. And used parts for less.
They also ship.
Give them a call at: 541-928-1646 real nice people to deal with.
Got a brand new pair of rear tires for my Kubota L285 for $400
Walt

Of course, JD guys would have a heart attack to know just how many of their beloved green parts were actually made by CNH and others.....

JD 2010 glow plugs:
JD $100 EACH
Ebay $100 for a set of 4, delivered.
I have bought both over the years, they are identicle, same manufacturer, same part number on them.

Any of the majors do not like in store competition with other brands. There used to be an IH dealer that carried New Holland (before the Ford merger) and the IH territory man was always making threats to this particular dealer. The problem was this dealer was such a power house with tractors and other big ticket items that IH thought twice before pissing the customers off and canceling that dealer.

Thats funny I can get parts for all three at this dealer.

The Case IH dealer here is probably the most "mega" minded of any of them.

Up side is you don't have a piece of crap CNH/Case/IH/NH/Fiat/Your name here/Fix it again Tony, Parts NLA blue junker. Price parts for them if you want a REAL laugh. What few parts that are still available will take 10 times as long to get, cost more, and be of the lowest quality known to man. BTDT, got shed of 'em a long time ago.

I agree the $$$ are high but they do have the parts. I needed a kicker trip latch today. $80 in stock. OK. I was hoping about $30. So, I always multiply by 3 when my green stuff breaks. The broken piece is in a loaded hay wagon. I will find it and get it welded. Just in case.

I only have two JD pieces, a 7200 planter and a 235 disk. Always hold my breath when I call for a part during planting. As usual they have to order it, good thing for next day air.

That little plastic fuse holder for a 1010 john deere is 130 bucks through deere,or 2 bucks through napa.

(quoted from post at 07:56:02 07/27/12) To Fawteen and the others that like to bad mouth JD why don't you take just save us all the whining and go buy something else. Then you can complain about that brand!!!!!! Your JD 750 is just a YANMAR so go by one direct. Then you can complain about MOTHER YANMAR!!!

I buy parts for just about all the different brands out there. JD is no better or worse than any of the rest. NH parts are just about the same as JD an its takes them three days to get anything that I can have here the next day at JD. I actually have had the high price shock on AGCO parts more so than the other brands. On a Oliver three point pin they wanted $89 dollars and the part was three dollars at Farm&Fleet. I just returned it and paid the restocking fee. PLUS I thanked the guy at the counter for his service but I just could not justify the extra cost for a simple part. I did not stand there an cry and whine.

As far as dealership treatment. I think JD and CIH are both pushing the MEGA store thing too far. It is easy when you are selling everything you can build like the last 3-4 years have been but I think the cliff is coming and those Mega stores will crash and burn. Lets see how they do with two hundred 200K combines that don't sell for 3-4 years. That has a real possibility of happening.

As for the treatment at individual stores. I have good relationships with all the local stores. I also try to make the guys life easier at the parts/service counter. I try to look my parts up before I even go in. I also don't waste their time if they are real busy.

I have been on the other side of the counter when someone comes in for a small item and then stands there complaining that it is too high a price. The part may only have been a few dollars but they complain that they used to buy it for a few pennies. I made darn sure the next time they came in I did not have anything they wanted. Was that right?? Not really but it is human nature. Does anyone really want to help a cry baby tight wad??? NO.

So to the guys that want to run JD and other brands down. GO SOME WHERE ELSE AND BUY THAT BRAND. There are plenty of customers that like the product and parts that JD and others sell. We will keep them going. You guys just go and make someone else MISERABLE!!!!

Click to expand...

That childish assed response reminds me of an uncle once (married in on mom's side AND from West Virginia.... Worked at the coca cola plant in town.. Had a get together/bbq at their place once and some people showed up with pepsi and a couple other labels... He stands up and yells.... "by God, gonna eat my meat, you're gonna drink my kinda pop"....

You never saw a place clear out so quick and hardly anyone ever went back......

Now, go unwad your undies......

[i:654c4848f0]So to the guys that want to run JD and other brands down. GO SOME WHERE ELSE AND BUY THAT BRAND. There are plenty of customers that like the product and parts that JD and others sell. We will keep them going. You guys just go and make someone else MISERABLE!!!![/i:654c4848f0]

I did.

My point is, if my aftermarket source can make a buck selling them at $25, there"s absolutely no reason that Deere needs to sell them at $100.

I like my JD/Yanmar just fine, I just get tired of getting gouged on parts. And nothing you can say will convince me there's any need for those ridiculous prices.

[i:654c4848f0]John Deere, like all corporations, is in business to make money for the stock holders.[/i:654c4848f0]

And therein, my friend, lies the problem. Screw the customer all you want, just keep the stockholders happy, and the execs well padded with bonuses.

Well said, UD.

Dean

That's the way capitalism wooks Fawteen.
I didn't mention it above as I thought it was too elementary but Deere, Cat, Time Warner, Microsoft or any corporation doesn't owe anything to the customer. Only to the stockholders.
Here's how it works:
If Deere or Apple Computers don't keep their customers happy, if they charge too much or if they make a shoddy product then their customers will vote with their checkbooks and go buy another brand.
If too many people vote/spend somewhere else it will hurt Deere's bottom line.
So yes, it does behoove Deere to give good customer satisfaction.
But corporations OWE NOTHING to anyone but the stock holders.
That's how it's Always been. It's high time people relearn that as it is this kind of entitlement attitude that is driving us down the rathole.
Not trying to pick a fight with you here but it is important that people understand the basics.

(quoted from post at 12:26:38 07/27/12) That's the way capitalism wooks Fawteen.
I didn't mention it above as I thought it was too elementary but Deere, Cat, Time Warner, Microsoft or any corporation doesn't owe anything to the customer. Only to the stockholders.
Here's how it works:
If Deere or Apple Computers don't keep their customers happy, if they charge too much or if they make a shoddy product then their customers will vote with their checkbooks and go buy another brand.
If too many people vote/spend somewhere else it will hurt Deere's bottom line.
So yes, it does behoove Deere to give good customer satisfaction.
But corporations OWE NOTHING to anyone but the stock holders.
That's how it's Always been. It's high time people relearn that as it is this kind of entitlement attitude that is driving us down the rathole.
Not trying to pick a fight with you here but it is important that people understand the basics.

Click to expand...

Sometimes you really amaze me... Jerry Clower told a story with guys like you and a few others here in mind...
So, do you go parts shopping and say.. "wait a minute... you ain't chargin me enough... I'm goin to NAPA (or JD)"????

I's a kind of basic guy myself... I'll basically be damned if I'll pay 2 or more times the price of something and eat macaroni & cheese and drive a 22 year old VW so some other idiot can drive a new mercedes and eat steak.....

abundant..... ":^D

While that is technically and legally true, it's also my right (frequently exercised) to vote with my wallet and buy elsewhere when I feel abused.

(quoted from post at 12:52:25 07/27/12) While that is technically and legally true, it's also my right (frequently exercised) to vote with my wallet and buy elsewhere when I feel abused.

Click to expand...

DON'T YOU BACKTALK THE UNDERDOG MISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why did you have to post a bad thing(remark) about Deere,Agco or CIH if you can get a WILL FIT part cheaper and will be HAPPY??Or do you just need to get your post quota up??

...and if ya cross yer fingers and scratch yer arse the aftermarket ones might even fit. I've got a 278 dollar muffler here from Tisco that I've got to cut and reweld to make fit. I could send it back.... but I figure if this one was jigged and welded incorrectly there's probably a hundred more like it in the system.
Sometimes there's a reason why OEM parts cost more.

Rod

As a small business owner, I want to give good value and good service for the money I charge. But I"m not afraid to leave some money on the table if I"m making a fair profit. I guess thats why I don"t have a corporate jet, don"t give multi-million dollar bonuses to my employees, and don"t have any non-productive staff.
Profit maximization destroys good will. Customers know when they"re being screwed.

By corprate greed I was meaning that investers need to understand that their returns are directly tied not just to the amout of products sold, but also to the cost of those products. Think about it this way. I've seen gas stations in my area who would price their gas at 10 cents less than the other guy and their lot stayed full. The other guy might have been making an extra 10 cents per gallon but he wasn't selling but half the amount of gas. Granted that's stretching things a bit but in the end if you can beat the other guy by 10 percent on price, and get a larger market share because your lower price brings in more customers, then your investers are going to be really happy. In other words many companies feel the way to do business is to make alot of money as fast as possible, by doing as little as possible to make it, and to heck with the consequenses. On the other hand are the companies that would rather offer fair prices, good customer service, etc, etc, and are satisfied to spread the wealth over time vs looking for the quick buck. Remember when there were more companies, even huge ones like Deere, out there like that?

Too I was also talking about greed at the dealerships themselves. Granted there are some huge dealerships, but most euqipment dealers are independents and aren't worried about investors like Deere would be. Things like seeing what my Dad saw some years back when we did work for a local equipment dealer is a prime example. We had done some portable machine work for them on a piece of equipment because they weren't set up to do it themselves. Dad was standing there in the office talking to the service manager and happened to see the guy sitting next to him writing up the ticket for the customer. The price we charged was marked up to the customer at 100 percent. In other words the $1000 job we did cost the customer $2000 and put an extra $1000 into the dealers pocket for doing absolutely nothing. I can understand a 10 percent markup, etc just to cover the office work involved with what we did, but doubling our bill was pure greed........

Good post Ed.
You must give good value or you are going under.
Good value means working hard at keeping up with your market, sticking your neck out and putting up with the foibles of customers, suppliers, government and taxes.
Who would deny you your wages plus a profit?
If your profit is obscene your customers will naturally find another supplier.
If it is modest you will stay in business.
A guy like you has what it takes to run the show and be the owner. Your employees perhaps do not.
Or they would have started a business themselves.
I suspect you get paid more than most of your enployees.
I don't resent you. I applaud you for it.
The competition in management in a place like JD or Pillsbury or GE or Ford is intense. And only the best and brightest become managers and CEOs.
In that world, like in the MLB, NFL or Hollywood the top echelon is rewarded hugely.
Beyond our scale.
I see a lot of resentment toward the Captains of industry but little towards the likes of Angelina Jolie and Alex Rodriguez.
Why?

Yes some times the OEM abuse you an parts, basic economics say if they get to bad people will go non OEM, by used, do without, or move on to something else.

With the stress put on business from this stupid economy and from government in BOTH regulation AND taxes parts are going to be more expensive. The consolidation of farms is eventually going to lead to the consolidation of businesses that serve farms and less competition. More than one business has gotten to big for their britches and failed think IH 560 tractors or more recently GM going from near 70% market share in the 70's to less than 30% today(and paying executives bonuses all the way down)

How much of that $ you spend for a part actually goes for the part and the profit and how much goes for taxes, regulatory requirements, social security, single business tax, employee health care costs, workman comp costs, unemployment insurance costs, liability insurance costs, corporate income tax, personal income tax (paid on top of corporate tax), campaign contributions (read legal bribes), parts that get spoiled, lost or obsolete before sale, cost of returns on parts that were good when they left the counter but somewhere between the counter and the implement something went wrong, freight cost, charitable contributions, advertising, permit fees, debt/equity service cost and utilities? The cost of the previous list is probably more than the cost to manufacture and the dealer's profit. And remember on these captive imports (tractors made by a company that doesn't have their name on it when sold) you pay some of these costs TWICE once for the manufacturer and once for Mother Deere before it hits your dealer. Don't discount the actual manufacturer abusing Deere on parts with the hope of getting their foot in the US market by forcing Deere up market and allowing them to come into the market at a lower price for the same equipment in a different color.

Don't be surprised if one of our "big Three" equipment companies gets picked off by an overseas upstart they'll clobber them on service and value just like Toyota, Nissan and Honda did to GM, Ford and Chrysler.

And remember the current voice from DC wants the rich to pay "Their fair share" so rather than having $.30 of every dollar they make go to income taxes they'll pay $.50(or more)of what they make for taxes, guess what happens-they raise the price of the parts or "increase their margin". So if you're wanting to soak the rich just remember you'll pay a lot of their additional taxes if you have to buy from them.

Good post Wisbaker
You did forget one word.
Unions.
Funny how that one word will get this whole thread poofed aint it.

No Dave I will go and feed some coons some coke special mix and haul a few glue bags off to slaughter. Then you can get your nnalert in a wad!!!!!

I really torques me off when people run things down with half the facts. I have made my living with JD equipment for the last thirty years. Either working on it or selling it. I also farm with 95% JD equipment. I must not be the only one that likes the equipment because between 50-60% of the Ag equipment sold in the US is JD. The other half is split between the rest of the companies. JD is the only company that has not been sold and resold several times in the last fifty years or so. They are having their 175th year in business this year. So they must be doing something right.

As for Fawteen. If he had just came on here and ranted about the price I would not have gotten hot about it. No he had to start the "Mother Deere stuff" That really POs me quick. Well Mother IH and Mother AC all went BROKE!!! Mother Ford was sold to CIH so I guess we Will have to call it Mother CIH.

Well Fawteen: You popped off about "Mother Deere" with only half the facts.

Here are the facts. The original part number was CH15072 and it was for each shoe individually. That number subs over to M805735 which is a "SHOE & LINING ASSY" for $106.14 each. You only need two of them so they are $212.28 you don't need four of them!!! Also I called an old friend that work in JD parts warehouse in Milan, IL. I had him go put one of the assemblies off the shelf. It is two new shoes.

So the new original OEM parts are about twice what the after market ones are. That is about what it usually is. Just be glad that you can still get parts for your JD 750.

Have a friend that has Kubota B9200. It is just about the same age as your JD 750. He needs some front end parts for his MFWD on it. Kubota no longer makes the parts. He is looking for used and not having much luck. So he may just have big paper weight.

Ray you should not post things that are not true!!!!

JD 1010 fuse holder complete.
AT 14193 full list price $58.96

Go to www.jdparts.com and see if I am telling you the truth!!!!!

What you can't see on that site that I can get to is that JD in Milan has 50+ of them in stock.

Well Dave you are getting pooped on alright. That guy is just talking big. JD does not offer anything other than standard seasonal discounts and multi unit discounts to anyone. Even then those "big" discounts are 3-5 percent and you have to by large dollar amounts to get those.

I would say he is just talking big to make himself look important.

Truthfully a Tractor, baler and a bale wrapper is not that large of order. It is a good order but not really that large of one.

A large order would be 2 combines, 4 tractors, 2 planters, 2 corn heads, and 2 grain heads. That order was for over 2.5 million. They got an extra 7% discount for that order. I bet that any company would do the same thing for that type of volume.

NCWayne you are talking about stuff you actually know very little about.

Yes there are recommended stacking levels on JD parts but it is up to each dealer to decide what he wants to keep. He does have to keep a percentage of his new equipment sales amount in parts. JD DOES NOT tell him what parts he has to keep just how many dollars is a minimum. Most dealers have no trouble keeping way more than that in parts inventory.

The different equipment is under different contracts. You DO NOT pay a royalty for each contract at JD. I did the JD settlements at the last store I worked at. I saw every dollar that was paid to JD from that store. There never was any kind of royalty paid for any of the different contracts. There are requirements to keep the contracts. Like selling a certain market share in your sales area and having a certain dollar amount in cash reserves. Also you have to have trained service, sales ,and parts staff with JD certifications to keep your contracts.

As for the need for the different contracts. I support them being different. You don't think about what is cost in man power and parts inventory to service each contract. There are only 2-3 sprayer dealers in each state. The parts inventory requirement is over 500K just for that line of equipment. Then the guys that service them have to have completely different training than the normal tractor guys for the stuff other than the engines. Work site products (skid steers) are the same way. The numbers are not as big but not every dealer has the parts and people to have the contract.

Let me tell you what caused the different contracts to come about. Up until about 1975 there where no different contracts. You could sell anything JD made. They first split out the industrial stuff when they started to get more serious in that business. When it was just a few models of back hoes and maybe two crawlers then they did not need different dealers. Things changes and they needed to have more specialized dealerships.

Then they also had the problem of having too many dealerships. Back when the two bangers where new, there where a lot more farms than there are today. So they needed more dealerships back then.

There was a dealer close to us in the mid 1980s that was an old dealer that had never sold much stuff. 4-5 tractors each year and maybe a baler or two that was it. He did very little repair work either. Kept almost zero parts too. The old man died and his son took over. The son would sell you anything for $500 over dealer cost. If it was something smaller that you wanted to put together yourself then he would go even cheaper. They could not even put together a six row corn planter because they could not get it out their shop door. He started selling forty to fifty tractors each year. He tried to sell combines but the territory manager would not let him order them. They could not have set one up at the time. So for about ten years he drove the profit out of the whole area for new equipment sales. He also never kept anything in stock either it was sold orders only. He only paid his help $5 an hour. So he had no one that could work on any thing and half the stuff they sold was setup wrong. So the neighboring dealers all got stuck doing his warranty work and fixing the setup problems.

This dealer was not the only one doing this. JD could see that this was bad for long term business. So they came out with all new contracts that split things up and had written requirements to keep each contract. They did not let many of the old dealers get the new contracts. They usually would let them be an CP dealer but no longer AG. This was the start of the dealership consolidation.

I don't like the big multi store supper chains but the single stand along dealers are having trouble making enough profit to stay open.

(quoted from post at 02:59:08 07/27/12) My 24 year old 750 compact needs it's first set of brake shoes.

Mother Deere: $212.98 per side, or $425.96

Compact Tractor Parts: $23.95 each or $95.80

Questions anyone?

Click to expand...

I am going to invest in Deere Stock but get the brake shoes religned
for $25.00 retail per shoe.

I am suprised you found them at that price. We were fortunate in the Tractor shop to have a Clutch and Brake Rebuilder in our Jerkwater Town.

Hey, your obviously the expert. All I know is what the guys our local dealerships have told me, and what I've figured out from actual experience trying to get parts from the various dealerships local to me that carry the various different equipment lines. What you say may be true, and may be the way things are supposed to be, and each and every thing may have merit when practiced properly. Unfortunately, as you allued to, Deere has a large amount of control, but not total control over their dealerships, so what is happening in real life just might not be what's supposed to be happening........

So, right, wrong, or indifferent, what I just described in my previous post is what I have experienced, and been told by guys at my loca;l dealerships. So, while what I describe might not be 'right' by Deere's supposed standards, I do know what I'm talking about in relation to the fact that it is what I have experienced personally in my interaction with Deere........And I'm here to tell you, the customers thoughts on any brand will always be based on what they experience dealing with that brands dealerships, wether it's what the parent company wants it that way or not........