John Deere

Perhaps someone can explain this. Go to a JD dealership outside of your local jurisdiction, and you get sent back to a dealership that is closer to where you live, only to find no inventory on their lot for what you are looking for, but a salesperson that wants to sell you a new tractor sight unseen at a great price if you buy now & pay cash for it. After that, you wait about two months to get your new tractor. Is this the trend now in new tractor buying? I don't like it....

Stocking wholegoods inventory has been reduced considerably from where it was a generation ago. Even so with the smaller classes of tractors. Most dealers do not want to readily raid another's territory as it fuels a trade war. Nearly all dealers see wholegoods as a lowest common denominator game with the guy who is willing to sell under cost getting most of the area market. Nobody wants to make that any worse than what it already is. Sure there are still high volume low margin dealers out there but not as many as there were years ago.

Other manufactures have an inventory of tractors & equipment on their lots, what's Deere trying to prove? It's nice when you can actually touch, hear & drive a tractor when considering a purchase.

I thought I remembered somebody who should know about these things,saying on here one time,that you were pretty much "assigned" a Deere dealer? Maybe I read wrong or don't remember it quite right. If that's so,sounds like you'll take it or leave it.

Someone should research the "Moss-Magnuson Act" I was told by a small engine dealer that the Act was designed to allow you to go anywhere, anytime and buy from whomever, as long as you have George Washingtons in your pocket. Pretty sure its true but don't have factual evidence at this moment. Pose to be mowing the hay, I mean lawn.

Moss-Magnuson Act. Yup.

It must be your area as the area CaseIH and NH dealer yards are sparse compared to the Deere dealer here. The previous CaseIH dealer in Hornell, NY had virtually no inventory whatsoever until it sold out a few years back. The NH yard over to Fairport, NY was never heavy into ag. It depends on the focus of the individual dealer and what activity is going on in his area. The NH dealer in Fairport got surrounded by suburban growth and went heavily into backhoes and Bobcats as that was where the most substantial interest was even though they still carried the ag franchise.

You can buy anywhere but with JD so a dealer told me if I'm in another dealer's area the dealer thats covers my area gets a big cut.

cat used to be that way around here. we had a dealer 35 miles away but the way they divided there dealers we had to go about 70 miles if you wanted a cat.

Must be different in other areas. Two JD dealers fairly close here, one a little distance. All three happy to do business right here. When I was a youth, it was six!

I thought that act just had to do with being able to use aftermarket oil filters ?

I am somewhat familiar with your area. Trying to think who the sixth was. I know there used to be dealers in Dryden and Skaneatles.

Around here all we have is Sloan's.

Weren't auto dealers once assigned territories?

In the mid 1960,s, the newspaper I worked for would obviously accept advertising from, say, the GM dealer in our town, but we would not accept advertising from the GM dealer in a town 20 miles away because it would have infringed on our local dealer's territory. Same with other brands. I was working in production at the time and wasn't concerned with ad sales or management, so I didn't pay much attention to it. By the time I became General Manager in 1969, something had occurred so that it was "anything goes" as far as accepting advertising. I never really gave it much thought at the time.

The paper still would not accept beer or liquor ads, but that was a matter of principal on the publishers part because his father had been an alcoholic.

A JD dealership 30 miles outside my jurisdiction, would not even talk to me about a tractor. Told me I had to talk to my "local" JD dealer....

So are they still like that, or have they gone back to the way they used to be?

same family owns all the JD dealerships in about 100 square miles here.if one store doesn't have it. None of them do. if you want parts after hrs or on weekends during harvest season. They charge you an extra $50.

I miss the old Mom and pop dealers we had in the 80's.

I priced a new john deere skid loader at a dealer about 40 miles from me.I was told I was in another dealers area,they could sell me one,but it wouldn't be there best price.The local dealer would get a cut of the sale price.I told them I could buy a new Holland then.He said john deere didn't care because I wasn't considered a loyal customer.So,i bought the new Holland.

That's just so not right.....Typical JD attitude to their smaller customers.

Auburn (Wally Monroe)was closing down operations.
King Ferry (Danny Mitchell) went to John Deere days there. Same family had an Agway store there, and a little mill before that. (Actually Goodyears Corners, first four corners south of King Ferry, St Rt 34B and Atwater Road.
Moravia (Tommy Ryan, then Jack Hellier)
Skaneateles (Bobbett Implement) where the 214W baler came from, new, where it was introduced at a demonstration.
Savannah (Chas. Dickens, now Lakeland)
Aurora (Carlyle Bradley) although he was pretty much shut down.

I read the comments here with a little amusement because the John Deere parts man (well, kid actually) won't sell me parts either. Except that this one IS local.
My employer did some (well, actually a LOT) of work at our local John Deere dealer. I've known the parts man his whole life, so I guess you could say he shouldn't have to worry about me running out on him. Anyway, I need some parts for a "B" that I'm in the process of overhauling. I told him what I wanted on the tractor and he said he would check on parts availability when "he wasn't so busy". I'd remind him about it about once a month. (We were at that store for over a year, off and on)
I never got on his case and I've never been a can't-ever-be-pleased customer, so I guess the parts man is just always too busy.
I do know that if the store owner knew how I'd been ignored, he might make sure that this kid wasn't so busy after all.

The last straw for me was when the parts manager got real cocky and said "Why don't you just keep doing what you've been doing?" when I asked him to order a part.

I work as a sales representative in the ag equipment industry, and with the price of equipment dealers cannot afford to keep much inventory on hand. If that piece of equipment isn't sold in x amount of days the dealer has to start paying interest on the value or settle the equipment outright, which would sink a dealership pretty quickly if they had a few million in inventory on hand.

Also, due to the options available on equipment these days (cab, suspension, axles, tires, # SCVs, PTO, comfort options, guidance equipment, etc. etc.) it is impossible to predict what the buyer is looking for. The dealership is better off to have the buyer order exactly what he wants and order it straight from the factory which yes does take time, because they can't build a 300 horse tractor overnight.

On the issue of trade areas, you don't know how many times I have had someone from 3-4 hours or more away call and have me price a piece of equipment. I end up spending a couple of hours pricing the equipment and attachments, checking on compatibility with the service department, getting a freight quote, etc. etc. only to have the customer say "oh my local dealer cut me a good deal, I'm buying from him anyway, just wanted to check prices". It is frustrating. I want to sell equipment and be helpful but at the end of the day that takes away from time that could have been spent helping my local customers in my own backyard, the guys that I see every day and have a relationship with that goes further than a phone call or a "driving by" drop in to the office.

I have AHW 18 miles away, Cross Bros 20 miles away, Cross Imp 40 miles away, Arends and Sons 30 miles away, Sloans 45 miles away plus all their other stores further. Any more I always call when needing parts. Urbana, Melvin, and Clinton have the best parts persons for old and new.

How much swapping of equipment still goes on between dealers?
When I bought a new 4040 Deere back in 81,the local dealer didn't have what I wanted,so they found one at another dealer and got that one for me.
A friend wanted a new 8 row Deere planter back in the early 90's. Another local dealer who was famous for wanting list price for everything had what he wanted,but they couldn't come to terms on a price. He got a price from a dealer more than 50 miles away and they came out,hooked on to that planter on the local lot and took it out to him.

I thought the law recently changed on paying inventory tax? At least I think it did in Michigan....

All it would take is for folks to start buying those other colored tractors .Im sure that would change there attitude a bit.

The Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act is a United States Federal law. Enacted in 1975, it is the Federal statute that governs warranties on consumer products.

The issue with stocking new equipment is one of several things.

1) There is NO standard tractor/combine/planter anymore. There are literally hundreds of options on the equipment today. So other than round balers and Mo-Cos you rarely have exactly what the customer wants. The lower priced utility tractors and compacts are more standard so most dealers that sell many of them stock them. Do not expect an AG dealer that may sell 3-4 compacts each year to have any in inventory.

2) The cost of new equipment is sky high these days. On big ticket items like 100+ HP tractors and combines the sales margin is too small for the dealer to be able to afford to pay floor planning interest on the items and still make a profit.

3) The companies DO NOT want a large "NEW" inventory on their books. It makes no difference if it is at the factory or the dealers lot it is still showing on the companies inventory cost/total. All the majors got BURNT real bad in the early 1980s when they had LARGE inventories that took YEARS to sell.

4) The companies sales promotion programs are geared towards RETAIL SOLD equipment being ordered MONTHS before the use season. An example is corn planter programs are the best in JULY for the next planting season. Over 75% of the new planters are sold/ordered in that month.


As for you not getting a price from any dealer you go to. Well I do not like it but there are programs that are only for customers in the dealer's area of responsibility. An example of this would be an additional 5% cash discount. On a $150K tractor this is $7500. (This is not made up either that is a very common amount) For the dealer to be able to use that discount program the customer has to be in the dealer's area of responsibility or the dealer has to have sold a NEW piece of equipment to that customer in the last TEN years. On some items like skid steer loaders it is even more area related. If you sell out of your area the volume for the item will go the dealer where the retail customer's area of responsibility is. No ifs and or butts about it. That volume is 3-7% of the manufactures dealer price/ MDP.

The market and manufactures are driving many changes. The truth is that there are fewer farmers every single year. So there does not need to be as many dealerships to handle that shrinking market. Also the dollars of equipment each salesman needs to sell in order to make his living is getting larger. For a salesman to make a good living (50-75K) he will need to sell over 1 1/2 to 2 million dollars of equipment each year. So he has to chose who he spends his time with. It is just a fact of life. He can not make the commissions selling $10-15K compact tractors or $5000 used equipment.

As for parts; The antique equipment guys are one of the hardest groups to deal with as a whole. The systems at most dealerships are not setup to sell parts for a 50 year old tractor/equipment. So it takes more TIME and effort to find/locate those parts. Then you find the parts, look to see if they are available, and then price the parts only to have the person to tell you he can buy it for way less used/aftermarket/Ebay etc. A few times of this and most parts guys are through dealing with the entire GROUP!!!! So they do not go out of their way for this business. Once again it is a numbers game too. With fewer stores there are fewer parts people so their time is more limited than in the past. They have to SELL x number of dollars of parts for their store to stay open/viable. That can't be done with lots of small parts orders that take lots of time. So if you want better parts service than do what work you can yourself. I look up my own JD parts 90% of the time. Even the old stuff. I then price it so I KNOW if I want it or not. I then contact my local JD parts men and order the parts. The largest majority of the time I give them the part numbers I want and they order them. The only time they have to really dig is if there is a bunch of sub numbers or kits that the old numbers convert over too. So work with the parts guys and you usually will get pretty good service.

The over riding fact is that it takes more DOLLARS of business to keep a store/dealership open these days. So you have to target where the LARGEST amounts of dollars are made at. Unfortunately that will not be an antique collector, a part time weekender farmer, or a fellow with just one 50/60/70 year old piece of equipment. In most areas of the country even full time livestock guys fall into the small profit category.

I am NOT supporting these changes I am just wanting you to understand the forces at work in most dealerships today. I am most knowledgeable about JD dealerships but CNH and others are not much different. So you/me have to "work" differently at getting what we want, than we had to in the past.

A lot of people are buying equipment online or at auction, and have their own shops to work on, or build their own equipment if needed. It makes no sense to spend a 1,000 to make a 100 in today's competitive markets.

"None of them do. if you want parts after hrs or on weekends during harvest season. They charge you an extra $50."

Sounds downright reasonable, nowadays.

From what I hear, it costs about three times that to summon a parts person to the nearest CAT store that is big in ag equipment after hours or on weekends.

That's simply how it is!

Thanks JD for the reality lesson. Appreciate it.

I can't speak for your area but around here the John Deere dealer has the most inventory on hand, new and used. The CNH dealerships (one blue and two red) and the AGCO dealership are lacking.