what about exmark mowers? I see a lot of big landscape companies using those.
The list of commercial machines, is long... and you can say that you see any one of them " out there "..
Ive noticed in my travels, allot of guys that get into mowing for a living, buy machines for several reasons, other than " what machine is the best for the money ". Like price point only, service only, credit given here only, etc..
For instance, some guys do not own a TOOL, and pay the dealer to do EVERYTHING. All brands are not sold everywhere, so if you have an Exmark dealer, with a " decent " service department, and no one else in the area carrying commercial machines, chances are you will a disproportionate number of Exmark machines. Is that logistics or demographics ?
You can make positive statements of just about any brand of commercial machines. They are all pretty good, if you get to the top of the line.
As MikeGT4 pointed out, hes on his 15th season.
I mow commercial properties with a full blown commercial John Deere ZTR that was new in 2001. No ZTR dealers around me, Im in farmland, but there is a deere dealer, down the road. See what I mean ? As the years have passed, more dealers have popped up, but back when I bought that thing, would have at least a 50 mile one way trip to buy parts for another brand.
While most would have traded it off, Ive kept running it, its built like a tank. Its on its third Kohler, the hour guage quit, back in...I dont know, 2008 ? I have no idea how many hours are on it.
Solid machine, motor drives, " 7 Iron deck ", just keep wearing out the engines, but for what it costs to replace that machine with a comparable machine ( any brand ), well, Ive kept shoving motors at it. I probably need a diesel, but dont want to spend the $. The machine I want is about $15k+, the machine I run owes me nothing, so I dont really care to go to work for a machine. My truck is a piece **** too, so is my trailer, but I actually turn a profit, most likely because everything is paid for.
One other note, on my statment that guys will buy what is sold serviced locally to them, just for those reasons...
Being that I live on a farm, and Im miles from any conventional housing ( like town ), all my neighbors farm. All the tractors around here are Red or Green.
The local Case Dealer ( red for those that dont know ), lost its franchise about 4 years ago. Now I have neighbors that have bought nothing but red, going back into the early 60s. Most of them still have that old iron hiding in a shed.
So the case franchise goes away, they pick up the Versatile brand, and like rats following the pied piper, next thing you know, EVERY new tractor in the "hood" is a Versatile. Point being, the farmer will turn his allegiance from one brand of 50 years to another, overnight and in mass, because the local tractor dealer, changed brands. Where talking $75-$250k purchases, not $1-$5K purchases. Anyhow I find that interesting.
I wont be buying a Versatile, I will drive the extra miles to the next closest Case dealer, but too each their own.
and I was thinking motorcycle or ****.....man tuff call...