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The short answer: Kubotas are so popular because they are by far the finest tractor you can buy for the money. No one is even close to their quality. And this is coming from someone who purely hates Japan and about 99% of their citizens. It galls me to send money to that lousy little country, but I can't afford to have a second-rate work tractor and keep it repaired. My 20-yr-old Kubota garden tractor (G4200 diesel) has way over 3000 hard hrs on it and has never seen a mechanic. We replaced some steering parts ourselves after 19 yrs, and some little stuff like belts and spindles over the years, but aside from once-a-year filter and oil changes, it just sets outside in the ice and snow and looks crappier every year. We mow over saplings and brush with a belly mower that a bush hog should be doing, and the rusty little beast just won't quit. We just ordered a Kubota L3130 after looking hard at the New Holland (Ford) and John Deere equivalents, and dollar for dollar the Kubota gave us MUCH higher capabilities in every respect -- Even in the Kubota B-series, it just ate its competitors' lunch when you looked at the numbers. Check Carver Equipment's website for a side-by-side comparison and you'll see why no one wants the others. Now that I'm retired I run a portable toilet rental business, so I spend a lot of time on construction sites. In this area (VA) at least 90% of the small contractors have only Kubota equipment on the site -- to the point that my drivers usually remark when they see a John Deere or Ford loader or backhoe on a jobsite. It's a running joke around here that there are several developments where you aren't allowed to even build unless you have orange equipment and drive a Ford pickup. I suspect a lot of die-hard Ford or John Deere people will disagree, but these small contractors buy and operate their own equipment and they KNOW what works and what doesn't.
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