Good day.
To your question…’what good folks would do in this situation’…I am not sure you were referring to me
, but my first question is did you go to dealer to burn time and kick tires while raining or are you planning to buy a new machine? ( I read thread as you went to dealer as nothing better to do while raining.). For me if I did not need to replace my machine I would not trade in, much less switch brands.
If really wanting to sell/trade and buy, then I would have to think about what tractor spec I am looking for, as well as after sales service and parts, and finally some estimate of total cost of ownership over whatever time period you expect to have the machine. (Sort of the wild card is reliability of each machine…it’s really hard to forecast that other based on reputation, and that is no guarantee of future)
I am not familiar with your current model or what you are looking at, but the difference in price is not even close IMO. Personally I would be in analysis paralysis trying to figure out the gap…are they really similar size spec and capability(s)? (Sometimes models between brands not apple to apple even though advertised as competitor). Anyway consider if the specs are comparable. I’d also through in a comparable model from another brand as well for Ss and Gs just as check and see if missing something. Or not making a fair comparison. At some point have to come to terms with is there a reasonable difference between machines or it’s a lower price, and why the price would be lower by that much? Could be Kubota is over priced. Is that at one dealer or all dealers. (What’s MSRP on comparable spec’d machines between the brands?)
Lets us know how it goes. Good luck.