Area John Deere Dealers

Looks like two area organizations have merged. Z & M and Lakeland. Hopefully, prices remain stable. I kind of liked that there was some competition among JD organizations. Not that I was mistreated by anyone. I kind of expected this and think although unrelated by ownership that we will see some consolidation in the other colors sooner rather than later. Already saw it a few years back with ag banks.

Mother Deere seems to be consolidating dealers all across the U.S. Case-IH seems to be doing the same. If there are no competing dealers, the price is whatever the parent company sets it at.

Down here in SJ we had three JD and now they are all one.

Case IH did it here quite a while ago. It has been one organization from Buffalo to Auburn. That same Case IH dealer picked stores in the Southern Tier not too long ago. It would take close to an hour to drive out of their shadows.

Not just Ag. equip. Our farm products co-op has been merging and buying competition for years but has really stepped it up in last 10 years. For fuel and fertilizer I only have one place to call for pricing and you can guess that price goes up each time they join. This is a 100 year old co-op owned by us farmers but every time they put to a vote to merge or buy the majority of us farmers vote yes. I always vote no and explain that a yes vote is voting to raise prices (less competition). But it always passes so my logic must be wrong. What am I not seeing here?

I have been trying to trade a 2009 JD for a 2014 JD or also Case/IH. I can't hardly get the dealers to talk to me. I guess they are so busy selling new eqt with crop prices so "high" they don't have time to trade a 140hp tractor. Working with 3 dealers and I can't even get one to call back. The other two took days to get me prices, and then days to get back when I countered. I'm thinking to myself that I'm sure not going to beg to get someone to sell me a tractor...but may have to..lol!

I would think with eqt moving this slow, they would fall all over themselves to make a sale.

I learned of this about a month ago.

I have had excellent support from Z&M, never really had any dealings with Lakelands.

This is happening with all colors of tractors, the automotive industries, etc....

I've done well with Lakeland. I've known something was in the works for quite a while now but I kept my mouth shut to protect my good standing with that dealer.

They already have a lot full of inventory and do not need any more hi-priced used ones thats the real problem so you arent going to get a very good deal in case you havent heard new tractors arent selling and dealers are full of inventory

Same thing here in central Ohio, just a few dealers,,or rather Dealer owners, JD Equipment here has about 10 stores and rumors of them buying Shearer Equipment to the North of us, adding a few more stores,,less competition is bad for us..they all have the "Take it or Leave it" attitude..Tractors and Harvesters are getting to be like Automobiles,, they all look the same except for color,,it could boil down to order your tractor and choose your color....they have already told us that they are keeping control of the technology in them already,,so you must come to them for all repair..

Quit with the mother deere B-ll sh-t. If you don't like John Deere, just say so or stay away. OKAY

I have purchased several items from shearer and really like doing business with them.the only bad thing is it's a long drive.

The cost of doing business is so high it is forcing dealers to consolidate. Mother Deere may be encouraging it too.

Sheesh calm down now.

we have 2 john deere dealers near me on il wi state 1 dealer has 18 or 19 dealerships the other 2
also 2 kubota dealers that have 2 or 3 dealerships

Agreed, Winchester.

Dean

Accumulator, the equipment itself and the business policies of the company are two entirely different things. Hence the derisive "Mother Deere" designation for the company and its policies. Its quite possible to like one and dislike the other.

As far as sale of tractors and equipment is concerned, I don't think the consolidation of dealerships has a huge effect, because there are Kubota and New Holland dealerships right down the road. But once they got ya' and you need parts and service, that's a different story. But it all boils down to the attitude of the owner- a local ag banker bought a floundering JD dealership in my town about 20 years ago, and has since bought up about 10 more. He has no JD competition within two hundred miles. Yet they all seem anxious to please, and I've never heard a bad word about any of them.

From what I heard It's a merger Z&M has had one owner for a while witch mother Deere doesn't like and lakeland has been in financial trouble. A investor bought both same person that owns Ihops in rochester area??

Whether you want to admit it or not, that Deere b-ll sh-t is mostly true. Deere is 100% about control. They tell the dealers to consolidate or be closed. Simple as that. They tell dealers, on various issues, this is the way it's done, don't like it, too dam bad. There is the flip side to that where Deere tends to support their dealers well, and stands behind their product, especially where safety is concerned. They tend to pay dealers quite well on warranty. If a Deere dealer ever tells you that warranty doesn't pay well, or that they don't make money on it, they're full of crap. I'd bet you they make out better than 90% efficient on warranty claims, and they're paid full shop(or road) rate, minus service call fee and road time, which can usually be worked in one way or another. An example of standing behind their product is the drive shaft PIP that is still on going with the original 9x00 series, or the 9.0L PIP that basically got you a rebuilt engine, (it was(is) prorated depending on age and hours.) Deere has screwed up over the years, and for the most part, tries to stand behind the product.

Compared to CNH, on the whole, Deere does very well. There's just not as much structure to the CNH system. You don't have the support from CNH, the parts system doesn't tend to be as good (think back ordered parts, and NLA parts). Not as much in stock at the local warehouse (Grimbsy vs Toronto). CNH tends to just have standard stock order discounts and conditions surrounding machine down orders, where as Deere can be very hard to get along with on this. You have to keep your stock order, vs machine down orders (FLASH) at a very specific percentage, or loose the stock order altogether. FLASH orders also have very specific conditions or you loose certain FLASH privileges. CNH really doesn't have that far to go, to be at the top of their game, but whether they're really aiming to be at the top is another topic.

A lot has to do with goverment regulations. Couple of years ago friends that had the oldest Deere dealership in Indiana, over 100 years in family, had to do it At that time they had think 4 stores over northwest Indiana. Just Dad at close to 65 and one boy to operate things. They just could not keep up with all the regs and paper work. After the merge think about 15 stores in unit now. Now instead of the one boy trying to do it all they can have specilasts to handle all that regs and regulation work. The family is now more relaxed as they can now concentrate on their customers. Hated to have to do it but either that or go out of bussiness.