There are people on here that have been buying green farm equipment for generations without so much as looking at anything else. As far as they are concerned green farm machines are the be all and end all, if there is not a green machine that fits their needs, no such machine exists. I could be argued that it is stupidity to spend so much money and not shop around, so consider the green premium a Stupidity Tax.

How is that any different then guys who have been buying red for many generations.  I've found JD is most instances is not that much more like some people claim if both machines are optioned out the same.  I had a neighbor this fall looking at getting a self propelled sprayer and they demoed a new Case Patriot 4430 and a JD 4940.  The JD was only $10,000 more and they liked it better but they went with case.  Matches their red tractors. 

If everybody had that attitude, we'd all be running Apache sprayers and those little rinky dinky Spra coupes since they are the cheapest of the cheap.  You've never paid a little extra for something you thought was better?  I doubt it. 

It is no different.

The brand loyalty some people on here have is hysterical, these people deserve to pay too much.

I can totally understand some degree of brand loyalty and I can also understand that you stick with a dealer that looks after you, but when I read on here how people have had the same brand of machine for generations and wear all ther merchandise alarm bells start ringing.

One place i worked ran anything and everything, If they needed a new machine, they got them all out on demo, used them, then bought the right machine for the job. The colour mattered not one dot. What mattered was, is this the right machine? Can the dealer support it? Is the deal competitive?

If a manufacturer knows that people will buy their product with out looking elsewhere they would be foolish to not charge extra. Like I said, it is a tax on stupidity.

If you are dead set on owning a JD it sometimes helps to shop between different JD dealers.  On our last machinery deal, the dealer we usually go with was $125,000 more then the next one down the road.  Needless to say our usual dealer got a rude awakening. 

"Here" the difference is parts support. Hard to put a number on it, but JD parts availability is light-years ahead of the others.

Your area may be different.