[hittman]

Last week I was out pricing some equipment. I went to my local family owned dealership and got the price on a new 4 wheel drive, with no trade in. I also then bought some parts for my cultivator that needed replaced. I then just happened to stop at another dealer on my way to a wedding on saturday afternoon and gave them the spec. sheet that I got from my first dealer and told them to give me a price on the four wheel drive, I did not include the price when I gave them this spec. sheet. They gave me a call back today with the quote and it is 11,000 less then my local dealer. I just don't understand how this can happen. The dealers are each getting their equipment from the same place. Then what really put me over the edge was I asked them the prices of the parts I picked up from my local dealer, and they were $1.21 cheaper, and they where all JD parts. I just got off the phone with my local dealer and was asking him how this was possible and he told me they just did this to get my business, I then told him that they better be lowing their prices inorder to keep my business.

Anyone else seen this issue?

 

[boomer]

I normally tell my local dealer right up front that I will be shopping around when it comes to big tickett items. It saves a lot BS and I dont feel like its my fault when they ask "why didnt you buy that last tractor from me?"

 

[bighp6030]

Nature of business.The steel warehouse I work for is always having problems like this.We carry or can order darn near anything you want metal wise,but smaller steel companies will try to under cut us to get new business and when the small guy goes back up on prices,the customers always come back to us.
There is a steel company in Lubbock that has seriously undercut us on prices.Sooner or later the small profits will catch up to him and he will raise prices.Funny thing is the same company buys steel from us on a weekly basis,figure the math out on that one.

 

[Tom Turner]

It all depends on what the percentage the dealer wants to make and also on the parts. The one dealer could have more programs from JD because they sell more, they could have more stores, so they sell more and get a better deal from JD.

 

[michaelshawn]

I always got a better deal from the guy down the road right up until the day he went broke.

 

[hittman]

To tell everyone the truth with my local dealer is that it is family ran. All the kids work there, which is 7 or 8, and most of the wifes/husbands. Then none of the grandchildren ever thought they should have to go to college, and if they did they dropped out, and so now there is probably 15 grandkids there, plus the people that work in the shop. There are a lot of salaries that need to be paid.
The other dealership I'm taking about in here is in Indiana, but is really only a extra 10 miles away then what my local dealership is, and they just do the little things that make you feel good. We bought our last combine from them and they always stop out and ask if everything is going ok, there is always tech. guys stopping out and making sure the combine is performing right, and if we have some sort of minor issue with it, they fix it for FREE, and don't charge anything for their trip out. During the fall and spring they will bring a hot meal out to you once a season and so on. It is just the little things that makes you like one company over another.

 

[greentech]

Quote:I always got a better deal from the guy down the road right up until the day he went broke.

Yeah same thing happened here. Local CIH dealer would sell equipment for stupid-cheap. Last month he went bankrupt. I don't feel sorry for those guys who traded a Deere for a Case and now have to travel 2 hours for parts/service. Business isn't business without some profit.

 

[harsh]

I don't know where you guys are in the country, but in this area the small are getting gobbled up by the big and the corporate green is pushing it. A dealer in the southern part of the state has been a Deere dealer for many years, the larger dealer has been selling equipment at near or below cost for the last few years and has driven the small dealer to a cash basis with Deere in 2005 because they couldn't make the sales numbers that Deere set for them. This year Deere told the small dealer that their contract would not be renewed and that the large dealer would take over the territory.

The moral of the story is, Deere is pushing the Cat model of dealerships, one dealer covering large territories. In the last three years the Deere dealerships have gone from ten to four in the eastern part of our state, and the race is on to have only one or two companies owning all of them.

Get ready green paint lovers, the 3 dealerships within 10 to 20 miles will change to 1 and even 0 in the next few years and your coveted manufacturer is making it happen whether your family owned dealer wants it or not. If the dealer is not a 50 million a year dealership Deere will not pay the volume bonuses to them and that will break or make them sell the mom and pop stores very soon.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH MOTHER DEERE, I love what you are doing, it is making your customers look at other brands and get into the reality that every manufacturer has good products, and their dealers will take care of them as good or even better than the dealer their pickup drives them to with the deer running away on the sign.

 

[Tom Turner]

Yes in the city i live in it had a CaseIH and a Agco dealer. The CaseIH sold for less and then closed up, so the Cat dealer in Nebr. took over the store, Cat is starting more stores in Nebr. so it looks like it is the other way with more Cat dealers.

 

[harsh]

The Cat dealers were primarily in the populated areas with the construction products, with Agco as a partner they are having to branch out in the agricultural areas more for the parts and service for the Ag products both Cat and Challenger (and we all know that nobody does parts and service like Cat and their dealers). The stores won't be as close as the stores the Deere following is used to but will be logistically placed with parts delivery boxes and field service that comes to your shop to do the repairs instead of you driving your machine to them.