I have been using Kubota products for 23 years. I have them all in rental service. I'm sure JD makes a good product but I'm scared to try them based on my results with Kubota. Anything that will stand up to just any John, Dick and Harry using them on a daily basis is hard to leave. For what it's worth, in my opinion when you leave Kubota, you are going down hill. My experience has been that Kubota equipment doesn't often break, it takes some Ahole abusing it to break it. In all these years, I have never had a major engine or transmission repair. Whether you buy Kubota or JD, You should do it while there are still machines available with the old exhaust system.