I see on the front page that Kubota started in 1972. I am sure some of you have tractors that are still around from the early days. Show me some of your 1970s tractors! Who has the oldest one?
As I was restoring my 1972 Kubota L210 many years ago, I did extensive research into their history here in the USA. 1972 is often listed as the beginning of Kubota in the states, but that is not all together correct. 1972 marks the first year in which a certain model was manufactured and sold solely in the US. That model was the L210. Prior to that however, the L200 was sold in the US. As early as 1969. However, since that model was sold both in Japan and the US it is still considered by many as a gray market tractor. In fact, some L200's do have the Japaneses signage.
But even prior to that, Kubota was marketing a tractor in the US. The story goes that do to import regulations prior to 1969, they could not import and sell "Kubota" tractors. So they cut a deal with McCulloch in which they would manufacture tractors, import them and sell them under the McCulloch brand. The earliest example I found was a model D-20 made in 1965. You can google it.
So is 1972 the real date Kubota entered the US market?
What's interesting is there are even errors on the current Kubota website regarding "introduced years" of prior products. What's really interesting is they use to be correct and for some reason have been changed. But errors on websites are not uncommon.
I just thought some of you may enjoy reading some less known history of Kubota tractors. They have been here a lot longer than advertised.
