I wish the guys/gals that designed some of this stuff had to work on it, or at least talked to the guys/gals that DO work on it!
in the 29 years I did kubota dealer work, about 15 times the japanese engineers would show up with translators and we would go out on the sales floor and discuss tractors. What we would like to see done, what customers request, etc. So they do in fact ask for feedback, or they "did" anyway. I am not in that business anymore so I can't speak for the last 3 years.
Rember the RTV400? The engineers showed up with a "new" (at the time) prototype RTV gas burner with a belt drive. Well my gosh, finally! They asked us not to take pictures, and we gladly set our phones and such down in the shop office until they were gone. They didn't want us taking no pics. Prototype, can't blame them. The "new" RTV was to be a direct competitor with the Kawasaki Mule 600 series. They unloaded it, we walked around it and we discussed what we saw as potential issues and what we saw that wouldn't compete very well with the kawasaki, and things that would be better than kawasaki. They got our feedback, took it back to Dallas, then trucked it to Mexifornia, then put it on a boat back to Japan. 13 months later they show up with another one at the dealer. "Hey come look at our new RTV and critique it". Ok cool. new one was an RTV400Ci. It was indeed a direct competitor to the Mule 600/610 but it rode rougher and had a slightly more comfortable seat. The engine was, not good (to be nice about it), I was already familiar with it (Robin engine). Power was acceptable, like the Mule. Top speed about 24 mph, just like the Mule. Ground clearance was less and you couldn't really put bigger tires on it. It had pluses and minuses, but it did compete. Unfortunately the engine is what did it in. The EFI sucked. The engine itself was known to eat camshafts (a lot like the Polaris units of the similar time to be honest but Polaris used a lot of Robin engines for a while as well so there may have been some similarities). That was one of many times they would show up and ask for real-world feedback. L2900 was another one, 1990's. That turned out to be a decent little tractor once they got the bugs worked out of the prototypes. They actually brought one out and let a customer use it for a month and that customer gave them all kinds of feedback, which went into the final rendition.
I felt honored to be a part of that stuff especially the RTV400, although it was really a flop.
B3000 was another one. They wanted feedback, said they didn't have anything in that line. I said yes you do, you have a B7800. Make it only slightly larger, 1 or 2 more horsepower (as if it needed that, it was a beast), maybe a little longer so that the loader can have a higher capacity and for heavens' sake see if you can reduce the "buzziness" of the little 4 cylinder. Then came the B3000, which was all of what I suggested and more. Good little tractor. Lots of power in a small package.
the engineers still didn't work on them except the one recall they had on the clutch cams on the standard L series. They sent 6 guys and 1 gal out to do about 7 or 8 of those. Said we'll do them all in one day. I said no you won't, and the one japanese guy says yes we will and I'll bet you lunch that we can do 4 by dinner time. You're on. I ended up buying 12 pizzas. They were GOOD, and quick. They also found out that engineers didn't engineer them to work on em, they engineered them to make money. Lot of japanese and jinglish cussing going on over at that part of the shop. They didn't get all of them done either. came back the next morning to finish the last one.
