Tractor dealers

jbp · Aug 21, 2011

In 1950 there were ten brands of tractors available within eight miles of where I live. One dealer in a town of about 50 people sold Massey Harris, Oliver, Minneapolis Moline and BF Avery at the same agency. Six miles up the road Ford, International Harvester, Ferguson, Allis Chalmers, Case and John Deere were available, all at separate dealerships. Now only John Deere and New Holland are available in the entire county. There isn't any competion like there once was, so there is a you can take it or leave it attitude at those dealerships. Joe

Tim(nj) · Aug 21, 2011

In 1980, Flemington, NJ (Hunterdon county seat) had JI Case, Allis-Chalmers, International, and Massey-Ferguson. Lebanon, NJ had International. Just over the Somerset county line in Neshanic, was John Deere. Just north of the Warren county line in Washington, NJ, was White (Oliver) and Ford. Now all we have is the New Holland dealer in Washington.
Prior to this, Deere closed two dealers in Hunterdon county, in Pittstown and Flemington, because they did not want to go with Deere's new minimum requirements for showroom area, floorplan, etc. An IH dealer in Bloomsbury and an Oliver dealer in Lebanon had also closed in the '70s.

rustyfarmall · Aug 21, 2011

(quoted from post at 12:54:31 08/21/11) In 1950 there were ten brands of tractors available within eight miles of where I live. One dealer in a town of about 50 people sold Massey Harris, Oliver, Minneapolis Moline and BF Avery at the same agency. Six miles up the road Ford, International Harvester, Ferguson, Allis Chalmers, Case and John Deere were available, all at separate dealerships. Now only John Deere and New Holland are available in the entire county. There isn't any competion like there once was, so there is a you can take it or leave it attitude at those dealerships. Joe

Actually, the competition is stiffer now than it ever has been.
There are far fewer farmer/customers today than back in 50s, 60s, and 70s, and if the customer base is not out there, a dealer cannot survive. For the same reason, most of the tractor brands we had back in the 50s are also gone. Swallowed up by bigger fish.

2cylpartsinfo · Aug 21, 2011

I hate to say it but don't be suprised if CaseIH/New Holland dealers are consolidated. My guess is Fiat (parent company) will pick one brand for higher end areas and the other for "average" customers. This is an educated guess only, we will just have to wait and see.

Agco did this with MF and Challenger, some of the rubber tired tractors are exactly the same with exception of paint color.

Anonymous-0 · Aug 21, 2011

Divide number of dealers then by number of farmers in the area then.

Now, do the same with dealers v farmers today.

You'll probably find out the ratio is roughly the same.

I live at a point where I'm less than 5 minutes drive from 4 different counties. At one point when I was a youngin' there were 33 dealers in the 4 counties. Now there's 5. Used to be literally thousands of farms in those counties. Now just a hand full and a BUNCH of subdivisions. Don't look for the situation to improve any time soon.

NY 986 · Aug 21, 2011

Less farm numbers and higher horsepower units translated in not enough business to go around for all the dealers that were in business 20, 30, 40 or more years ago.
Related to the thread previous to this one is that some business issues of certain affiliated manufacturers made it impossible for some dealers to carry on. Others could operate in generally prosperous times but when things got difficult they lacked either the savvy or financial base to weather the tough times.
Not all the big dealers have terrible attitudes but there are plenty that do, however.

NY 986 · Aug 21, 2011

I think consolidation of Case and NH dealers will definitely happen with the next national downturn in agriculture. There is getting to be a very large commonality in products between the two lines. Case and NH are down to chain outfits with a few minor exceptions here. The strongest outfit financially will win in my mind and the other will be forced to either find new products, live off the shortlines they have or close. I don't see where there will be random closings to keep both going. What was not available through one side will now be available after Fiat hands the strong dealer the whole package. The strong dealer will make room for the balance of the CNH line and this might leave a shortliner in a less than desirable position with the strong prevailing dealer.

LenND · Aug 21, 2011

Same thing in this part of the country. Four of the JD dealers got the JD call--Set up to our computer system or your shut down. Then JD called our local JD dealer and give him a deal on these other dealers. So he owns six now but is a good dealer I think. Better then RDO getting them, Local dealer was already set to their (JD)computers.

504 · Aug 21, 2011

Same as car dealers, when I was 16 you could buy from the Big Three in this county and now there is no new car dealerships in the county. My Dad owned a garage and knew at a 100,000 miles, you needed at least a valve job and probably a new motor, the last PU I got had 90,000 on it when I got it.

Anonymous-0 · Aug 22, 2011

That'already happened in Spokane County, Case-IH & New Hollard are at the same dealer. The AGCO dealer pulled out. The 0ther two left are Kubota and John Deere.

Tractor dealers

jbp

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Tim(nj)

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rustyfarmall

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2cylpartsinfo

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Anonymous-0

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NY 986

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NY 986

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LenND

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504

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Anonymous-0

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