Keeping a one-color fleet

[Laapa]

Ok, so we've had our strange strange little Color-war on this board where strategy seemed to be to stay as far away from Green as possible. Now, can we get serious?

I think most of us agree that selecting a tractor only beasuse of it's brand ("I will only buy JD/IH/NH tractors beasuse i always have, and none of the others know what they are doing..." etc.) not only limit's one choice but is also bad economics beacuse you loose the ability to put pressure on your dealer.

However (trick-question, can you imagine a world whitout hypothetical situations?):
Suppose I have a new tractor of brand A, modell X1. I am very happy with my purchase and will in a year or two need one more new tractor of approximately the same size.
When this day come, brand A still produces the X1 model, but brand B and C also have models of similar size and their dealers would very much like to see a B or C machine on my farm. The B and C dealers both offer very competitive prices.
Now for your opinion. If I am unbias as to what brand i got from the start, would it make sense to pay a slightly higher (slightly being the operative word) price for a second A X1 just to keep similar machines, thus already having an established operating, and maintenace routine and being able to use a common supply of spares, filters etc. Or will those advantages in reallity be so insignificant that one might just as well get one A x1 and one B Y2. Perhaps by keeping two same-size, different brand tractors they might complement each other in being slightly different.
... and wouldn't it look more professional with two X1 tractors atanding next to each other?

[Laapa]

On a related note. I spoke to a guy who is responsible for purchasing tractors for a large agricultural-related company. He trades ca. 8 tractors (of a fleet of ca. 25) each year. Over the years he estimates he has propably purchased 150 new tractors! He claims he still evaluates offers from other dealers, but all tractors he ever purchased has been of the same brand!
Of course, he does get excellent service...

[Woodbeef]

Man,what a good question!!

I think that this is one of the philosophical questions  of all time! It could become a double edged sword very quickly.

I for one since leaving the Deere camp,have run numerous colors and still do. Heck,I even use tractors that have not had any dealers over here since the mid 80s. Myself I look for,ease of use,dependability,longevity,and the biggest bang for my $$$.

Having all one color could be benifical,as Laapa has stated. Parts interchangability,likeness of servicing,bigger customer at dealer,etc....The down side could be that the dealer becomes lax once he figures he has you brainwashed,and in his pocket.

As for running more colors hhmmmm.....Yes you have to run to more dealers for parts and service. But these dealers also know that you might buy from them in the future,and they are up against everybody else also on your  purchases. So they just might go out of their way for you to keep you happy.

Around here the Deere,and MF dealers are  too big,or think  they  are. So the little guy suffers! All of the other dealers seem to go a little further for you. The local Rainbow Brigade/Belarus dealer just keeps getting,bigger and bigger every year. Everyone says he can not be beat on sales and service!!

[[e-mail]]

excellent question!

for me i would only stick to one brand if we were intense in the production of a lot of vegtables etc. this is for one reason only and that is wheels!

if you a root crop farmer (potatoes etc) then you need a variety of differing wheel sizes. if this is the case you have all the same make so all the wheels will fit everything. this is quite the norm over here.

as for why we seems to run all case ih - well we gropw potatoes for a start and also they are cheap horse power!

[[e-mail]]

Why would you stay with the same brand? If you have more than one series of a make, most of the times it isn't even possible to exchange wheels. Or why would you stay with your dealer when you're happy with the brand you're driving? When we bought our last tractor the difference between the first offers of 2 dealers for exactly the same tractor was EUR 4.500 / US$ 4.000. So one of them had a lot of room to negotiate. We finally bought at the dealer we usually buy from because in the end he was cheapest although the difference was very small. I don't think he made a lot of money out of the deal but I don't care(his first offer was the highest of both, if the other sales representative hadn't come by, we probably would have payed too much). He's one of three dealers carrying the same brand and they are all at almost the same distance from us. I know that is a luxurious position for us but why should we let the dealers drive large Mercedes' while farmers for example can only buy middle class cars? I can't see farmers buying large Mercedes' when they're buying expensive tractors such as JD and Fendt. We drive two brands and the tractors have to pay for themselves.

[Jack_D_Kid]

Hi Ya's
will get people thinking on this one ,i have always run one brand (i have run many brands but only one at a time )ie when we changed from JD to CIH we traded 2 and brought 2 ..my dealer is 200Km away so i have to pay travel and his hours traveling .so from that point of view haveing one brand saves money  like ya saying if i wanted  an AX1 to match my other AX1 then things will match but if the new AX1.1 had diffrent filters then i'm stuck with carring 2 lines of parts  but with the tractor i run in the past nothing crossed over anyway ..dealers want ya to have one brand  ya think ya get good deals tradeing one off against the other with 1 tractor try doing it with 2 or more the deals are unheard of ..in a nutshell it comes down to the dealer ya got and the brand he sells fits what ya want to do .
catch ya
Jack D Kid

[JoeinTX]

     There is a great deal to justify what you say, it does make practical business sense to pick a supplier and rely on him for the most part of your product.  Most large corporations pick and contract with single suppliers for parts and materials and economically it is sound.  Your large amount of business helps keep them in business and thus you supplied with the items you need-sort of a circle.  I, on the other hand, am not a large corporation.  I've always bought and operated by the philosophy of "not keeping all of one's eggs in one basket."  Even if I am pleased with the products of one certain maker I will try to buy from another just to keep them in business.  Choice is the ultimate guarantee of competition and fair prices.  If we all decide to go and buy from, say the JD dealer, all of what we need?........ The next thing you know he's the only dealer around and sets all the rules.  That hydraulic valve or whatever that you once got for $X is now three times that price.  Guess what, you got no where else to go......  I like AGCO and their products.  Regardless, I'd be a fool to buy all of my equipment from them and shut out everyone else.  I might have to make two or three stops to get my parts etc., but it's cheaper to do that than pay double for being blindly loyal to one dealer or brand......

[Laapa]

I am bumping up this old topic since it is similar to Renzes post on Psycological motives of brand loyality.
We ran this topic this winter and this is what we came up with. Could be interesting to start it up again.

(really can't remeber what the "strange color war" introduction is about...)

[leemsutton]

Laapa,

There is some sense in you initial post on this topic. The thing that worries me is the dealer knowing that your going to buy his colour because you have already been brainwashed. The 'common' parts thing means nothing to me as an Oil filter costs a certain amount. We dont get discount for buying 2 or 3 of the same brand. So if you have to buy 2 then it need not be for the same brand.

Ease of servicability - does not come in to it. Most modern tractors now have service intervals of 500 hours some 1000 hours.

The way they are serviced - well you have to change the same thing on each one anyway. The drain plug may be in a different place but what the hell - who cares! Its there somewhere. Once you've done it once you'll never forget.

The looking professional bit - I totally agree with you here. If a contractor turns up here to do a job for us with say 3 tractors - if there all the same brand, same condition etc then I prefer that. It does not matter to me what colour they are but the continuity is purely physcological.

Having all the same brand on our farm to look good does not bother me as I have bought, what ever i bought for a reason. I may have a Fendt for the vario tranmission and then I may have a Fastrac for high road speed etc and then I may have 2 Case's for general use because they are rugged hardworking machines.

Lee