Our closest real tractor dealer in my area within say 30 miles is a john deere dealer selling the smaller similar to the kubota bx series to the larger M series. But here is the catch that everyone i know around me it is rare to see a john deere tractor in use or for sale. When the owner heard that lowes was going to be selling the lawn mowers he refused to work on them. Also seems he has same tractors for sale From 2008 as new still. So dealer attitude makes a difference. But guess what the most popular brand that is owned and used near me the L series with back hoes and there are at least 2 I know of with 3 miles of my house. A friend also owns a bx25d to use on their small farm. So kubota is a popular brand considering the nearest dealer is at least 90 miles away for parts for kubotas.
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That dealer wasn't the only one who shared that sentiment when it came to mass marketing by JD. I worked for a dealer back in the early 2000's, same deal. The L100 series started showing up at Lowes and Home depot. The problem with those were that they were cheap mowers. Basically a green/yellow Craftsman-everything about 'em was dirt cheap. That was just the start of mass marketing. John Deere changed in the early 2000's from a product that was exclusive, excellent quality and craftsmanship to a more expensive version of a Sabre with different colors and stickers. The even bigger problem came with the smaller JD dealerships. Now instead of them taking care of JD customers, now they've having to work with the mass market customers....in other words, those customers who chose to purchase from Home Depot and Lowe's (among others). Those customers bought their machines that have been sitting out front for up to 8 months, with no gas in them, batteries never charged, and they were delivered to the customers that way. In some cases, they wouldn't start or carbs were dirty (they are test run at factory with gasoline and a hot battery). So then the little dealers who were selling real JD stuff were asked to perform warranty work. A carb cleaning on a L100 paid about $25 at the time (warranty flat rate). Dealers made zero, even lost money in a lot of cases. Customers were mad because they bought a "John Deere" and then either the dealer was backlogged or the dealer flat refused to do it. JD corporate told many of the small and multi-line dealers that either you do it or you get out of the JD business; and in our case we focused on Kubota and told JD to pound sand with their plastic tractors. JD opened a new dealer closeby and I went to work for them. Kubota dealer I used to work for outsells the JD sub 100 hp tractors by about 1.5:1 but that is not just the Kubota brand that is doing the selling; it also says some about the dealer. The JD dealer I worked for was hard to get to (location sucked), the help's attitude was poor overall, and the parking was nonexistent-just to name 3 dealership problems. Plus lack of experience in the parts and service departments, aside from myself (I was a writer). I was offered job back at the Kubota place and took it, and glad I did. I still like my old LX188, and I buy parts for it occasionally but when the time comes to replace it, I'm pretty certain that it'll probably be a Kubota, actually I'm in the process of probably buying an old G1800 for my dad. And hopefully my old G1900S that I bought last year will get put back together soon (bought it used/damaged).
On the lawn & garden side, JD doesn't have anything that compares to Kubota's Kommander series. They have their little plastic zero steer mowers but they don't even come close if you really dig deep into them. Subcompact JD's are plastic hoods and fenders, and same material that they made the LX100 hoods out of (extremely brittle). That characteristic follows even into the larger tractors. Also, a lot of the JD stuff is built by other companies-and this started with the 4000 series compact tractors back in the 2000's. Kubota still makes almost every single component of their tractors, including the engine, transmission, wheels.
