when to buy

When is the best time of year (Spring or Fall) to purchase a new Lawn tractor to realize the best deal?

Generally fall time of year because dealers don't want to set on a large inventory over winter.

Usually, the slowest time for sales is in January and February. Some tractors get sold in the fall because new owners intend to blow or plow snow with them. Others are bought as presents. All of that ends when December turns to January.

At that point, the new year has arrived and the dealers will be receiving the new inventory for the coming season. Many are anxious to blow out the inventory from the previous year, especially if the new models are different in appearance. Sears is one brand that comes to mind.

what you looking for in lawn tractor come look if close having very good luck with the units go to Dixon ztr or tractors

Usually early fall.

If you wait until mid winter they already have them in storage and off the floor.

Now, my dealer plans to have all of his new 2014 inventory sold by the first of April. Nobody buys a garden tractor during deer season

Tom is right about places like Sears. I bought a 21HP Craftsman from Sears in May of 2010, but it was a carryover. The new models were almost identical except for one or two feature changes, I saved about $400.
Another thing to consider, especially about Sears, they have quite a few mowers returned for various reasons.These units are repaired and sold through the retail stores at up to 50% off,with a new warranty. I know a man who has bought his last two mowers this way and never had a minutes trouble.

The last 3 I bought were at local JD dealer, bought them out of snowbanks in Feb. Got a real good deal on all 3.

He's a big dreamer to have all his 2014 inventory sold by first of April or he has a small inventory. Dealers around here would love to have all their invetory sold by April.

If you sell all of your inventory by April first, then what do you sell for the next 8 months?

Of course, April first is April Fool's Day so perhaps this is just a joke.

Many of the big tag items sold by sears(lawn tractors,home appliances etc)while being new may actually have been made 1-3 yrs ago.

When sears contracts to have X number of units built of a certain model/model number by a mfg they usually have a clause in contract that at end of season/mod yr or after a certain date all unsold units in main warehouse are returned to mfg for credit,the exception might be display units in store or odd number of boxed units in store stock.When units shipped back to mfg they are usually sent to a rework line,cosmetic changes(sheetmetal,electrical,etc)are made to make returned item look like new mod yr item in addition to adding any new features or removing or upgrade one/more that was troublesome in the past yr.After changes made these units are reboxed,given a new mod/sn & shipped back to sears to satisfy X number of items in new contract,depending on how many times unit went unsold & returned to mfg & updated the basic unit may be several yrs old although still new.

I worked for frigidare which is a division of electrolux for 7 yrs,this division made sears window ac units in addition to several other brands,starting in Oct. we would get start getting back 5-10k unsold units from sears for credit,these units were sent to a rework line setup in rear of warehouse & usually ran fall-spring,these returned units had whatever cosmetic/electrical changes made to them that were needed to make them look/operate like new mod yr units,a new id tag with new mod/sn was installed,new paperwork/manual furnished & unit reboxed & sent back to sears as a new mod yr unit,many times if unit was returned unsold & it was too costly to rework these units were sold to discount appliance stores at a large discount or sold thru company stores in all the Electrolux divisions at cost+a drop shipping fee to plant where ordered after the sears name was removed & frigidare/other brand name tag & mod/sn tag was installed along with a new box/paper work to match.I bought a new 3 yr old 26 cubic ft side by side refrig/freezer in 02 for $350 inc shipping thru company store & a 2 yr old top of the line washer in 87 for $150 inc shipping that I'm still useing today.

He has done it for more years than me or you.

(quoted from post at 20:04:24 11/20/13)
I worked for frigidare which is a division of electrolux for 7 yrs,this division made sears window ac units in addition to several other brands,starting in Oct. we would get start getting back 5-10k unsold units from sears for credit,these units were sent to a rework line setup in rear of warehouse & usually ran fall-spring,these returned units [b:bf101a0560]had whatever cosmetic/electrical changes made to them that were needed to make them look/operate like new mod yr units,a new id tag with new mod/sn was installed,new paperwork/manual furnished & unit reboxed & sent back to sears as a new mod yr unit,[/b:bf101a0560]many times if unit was returned unsold & it was too costly to rework these units were sold to discount appliance stores at a large discount or sold thru company stores in all the Electrolux divisions at cost+a drop shipping fee to plant where ordered after the sears name was removed & frigidare/other brand name tag & mod/sn tag was installed along with a new box/paper work to match.I bought a new 3 yr old 26 cubic ft side by side refrig/freezer in 02 for $350 inc shipping thru company store & a 2 yr old top of the line washer in 87 for $150 inc shipping that I'm still useing today.

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Holy smokes! I always figured something like that happened. Nice to be proven right. Thanks again Joe!