IOne of the most frustrating things about buying a tractor is figuring out what a reasonable price to pay is. The next most frustrating thing is finding a page like mine that suggests that you can buy a Kubota at a great price of 20% off list price, when your local dealers aren't even tempted to give you 10% off. For the first few years, starting in 2000, I followed prices very closely, and I found that if you went to the right dealer, at the end of the season, you could sometimes buy a new Kubota at 20% off list price. I've bought two new Kubotas. One was at the good price, the other was at the great price.

I have not been following prices closely lately and I don't know if this is still possible. I don't want to frustrate anyone by suggesting that impossibly good deals are just around the corner, so I'm leaving it to other sites to update their versions of my pricing tool along with whatever good and great prices they think are reasonable.

The biggest change that I've seen since following Kubota prices has been "internet sales". Kubota no longer lets dealers ship new tractors to out of state customers. This means your local dealer doesn't have to worry if Carver Equipment was offering great prices on tractors (and shipping it to for less than your state saIes tax). I believe that dealers can sell used tractors at whatever price they like to whoever they like, so you might find some great deals on rental tractors with just 50 or 60 hours on them.

Good luck,

Will

Here's the rest of my old FAQ:

Who are you and where do you get these prices? I'm a Kubota owner and I used to follow the prices people report on TractorByNet closely. People were always wanting to know if they got a good deal on various combinations of equipment, and after watching the prices people said they were paying, I picked up on the pattern and made it easy to use with my web page.

No dealers in my area have prices as low as your "good price", how come? I don't know, but prices vary in different regions of the country. Prices are lower in the South. Dealers in the Northeast and West often don't discount much. Maybe we have more dealers and more price competition in the South. I don't know. There's all sorts of discussion on TractorByNet about having a tractor shipped to you from an online dealer.

Are those list prices current? Why don't you put a date on the website? I have no idea. I'm still using my tractor, but I haven't been following prices lately. The prices don't change much, and I'm sure someone will e-mail me if the list prices change, so even if I haven't changed the date in several months, the prices probably haven't changed either.

Do your prices reflect current Kubota rebates? No they don't. It seems like Kubota usually has some sort of special going. Sometimes it goes to the customer, sometimes to the seller, either way should make it possible to get a better price. If I'm wrong about this, I hope someone will let me know.

I'm a dealer, your prices are ridiculous, why don't you do me a favor and jump in a lake? That wasn't exactly the question I got, but the sentiment is about right. Those aren't my prices! That's what people are paying. I have no idea if a typical dealer could make a living selling at the "great price", but sometimes, certainly not always, that's what people are paying. One dealer told me it wouldn't be worth his time to sell at the "great price". It seems likely that people who've bought a tractor at that price bought it from a dealer who had an extra incentive to sell it.

I'm a dealer, and it costs us a lot to give great service to our customers. This makes a lot of sense to me, and it's pretty clear that people are willing to pay more when it is clear that they are getting more. As far as I know, the vast majority of dealers include free setup as part of the price. Things like delivery, pick up and return for warrantee service, 50 hour oil changes often cost extra. If you are buying from a dealer who charges list price, you might want to see if he is adding value to your purchase in some other way.

Along these lines another dealer wrote and said he thought that the prices on the page were pretty accurate on the more expensive models, but were too low on the less expensive models. He explained that his set up and shipping costs were fairly constant from tractor to tractor, and so they amounted to a greater percentage of the less expensive models.

B-Series Prices

Useful Kubota links