Dealer choosing dilemma

[eruuska]

Hey guys,

Not-so-hypothetical question. I live in a small agricultural town that has no dedicated mowing equipment dealers. I have to drive about 45 minutes to find one of those, and once I get there I have several to choose from.

Here in town there is a JD dealership that deals mainly in agricultural products: combines, tractors, that sort of thing. They can order anything I need, but they're not going to have mowers sitting there for me to demo. There is also a Grasshopper and Simplicity dealer, same story. I don't know about their parts inventory, but I don't doubt that they can fix any problem that might arise, and parts are likely only a day away.

I'm buying equipment from *someone* next year.

Which dealer do you go with? The distant, dedicated mowing equipment dealer, or the local, mostly agricultural equipment dealer?

TIA,
Eric

[ztoro]

distant dealer... Service is huge... cant have it sit for a week while they order t he parts...

[QC Lawn Services]

Eruuska,

I have JD equipment and the dealer that I through is about 40 min from my house. JD has an online parts order service which is great. You have to identify the dealer and the parts normally are delivered there. Since my dealer is not close, I have called them up and asked to have the parts drop-shipped to my house. I have gotten all my parts next day and the cost is usually about $6.50. I have done all of my own repairs, fortunately they have not been extensive, but the JD dealer has been great. They also deal mostly with agriculture products and I did not demo a mower. I have a JX 75 push mower and a JD 737 Z-Trak. Love both of them.

[tiedeman]

the distant dealer. He would be able to specialize more for your needs

[lsylvain]

I used a distant dealer and it was alright. I usually did all my own repairs anyway so it wasn't a big deal, but the 2 times a needed to take it in I was in a hurry the first time it was just a hassle to have to drive an hour away so the second time I just took it to a regular small engine place and they did the work fine and I didn't have any trouble.