My L-110 is a "real" Deere, and its built rugged too. Got the Kohler Command engine just like the LT series had but a couple extra hp. I think it's an LT series tractor at 50% off.

Guys, there are various grades or series of Deere farm tractors too, and some are considered more high-end than others. But all carry the leaping Deere (or is it Deer?).

BUT, don't ask me if those Toro's at Home depot are "real" Toros. I might hedge.

Hey, the latest Yard Machine at Home Depot claims it has a hand-operated CVT. CVT stands for continuously variable transmission. We used to call those Vari-Drives.

I was in Home depot picking up a couple quarts of John Deere 10W30 Turf Guard oil, right on the shelf. Service category SL. Expensive stuff at $2.99 a quart, I can get synthetic at Wal Mart for $2.59 a qt.

D

Just wondering if you buy a JD at Home Depot or Lowes, can you get it serviced at an actual Deere dealer, or are you 'stuck' with Lowes/Home Depot?

emucom,

The JD Dealer will be happy to do the service for you, but why not just buy from the dealer?

Cheers

JDFANATIC

Davidandkasie hit the nail on the head. The big question is what kind of jobs do you need it to do. I don't expect my 155c to haul hundreds of pounds of rocks. I just want to get a nice cut to my grass, spead some seed and aerate my yard. Nothing more, nothing less. If I wanted more than that, I would have had to step things up a bit. OF course I would be lying if I said the green and yellow isn't appealing. As has been said on here before, all will be assimilated

"BUT, don't ask me if those Toro's at Home depot are "real" Toros. I might hedge."

Those Toro's?? Want to see fake. Look at the Lawnboy's.

They are about as real as that Ford Ranger I looked at.

Although I bought my L118 from a dealer, I like to look at the lawn equipment at Lowes also. I was looking at some of their JD mowers and was told that the dealer comes over and removes them from the crate, services them, and makes them ready for sale. The Lowes people do not get to even touch them before the Dealer tech says they are good to go. They also had the dealers sticker on the back of them.

Anything that is a licensed John Deere product is a real Deere. Even the little electric toys kids run around on are real John Deeres- they are really inexpensive but I do not expect it to do everything my X-485 will do. Chevy builds the Corvette and the Cavalier. I do not expect the Caviler to preform like the Corvette - if I try to operate the Cavalier like a Corvette it will not last, however if I drive the Cavalier as it was intended to be driven it will provide many years of service - and some people still don't get it - I love beating this horse.

I guess I didn't even realize the "myth" existed here. I think JD pays Toro to park their MTD built tractors next to their L's to make them look better (it works, by the way).

Well the only diffrence I guess is most people see is the L and LA series are made in tennesse and the X300 thru X700 series are made in Wisconsin. The J-series aluminum deck push mower are built by John Derre the J-series steel deck push mowers are made by Snapper for John Deere. a Quote from the founder himself "I Will Never Put My Name On A product That Does Not Have In It The Best That Is In Me" The Sabre tractors were John Deeres as well they were made on the STX and GT275 frames the last model year of the Sabre was Made on the L-series Frames. John Deere is in the business to make money so why not get in on the Box stores profit as well. I personally prefer my X485 but I would consider a L series for mowing duties. They are made for suburban yards.

JD Dealer will be happy to do the service for you. Odds are over time they will get much more business from me and if I ever need to upgrade to a more powerful tractor, it will probably come from the dealer. Why not buy it from the dealer? Good question. Bottom line is the deal was much better at Home Depot. In fact the dealer told me that Home Depot must have screwed up on the price of mine because he couldn't even get the 155c for what I paid for it. Don't know if it is really true or not, but I want to believe it. It is my story and I am sticking to it.

metal wrote: "I think JD pays Toro to park their MTD built tractors next to their L's to make them look better (it works, by the way)."
Every time I go into the HD or Lowe's I see all the lawn tracts and ZTRs right there nearest the front door. I find it amusing that they are parked across from or adjacent to the light bulb section. The "light bulb" came on for me and I went to a dealer and purchased something less disposable.

i bought my l100 from a dealer, but could have easily gone to home depot for the same price, and not as long as a drive to purchase it. but i went with the dealer because i was just generally more comfortable dealing with them, as opposed to the no-nothing staff at HD.

regardless of the fact that it is a low end deere, it performs well and mows my acre and a half no problem, plus hauls dirt, rocks, firewood and spreads seed and fert on my lawn.

i am an average joe homeowner. i would NOT be able to tell the difference between a "real" and "fake" JD, as most of the general population wouldn't either.

just my 2 cents

Neither Lowes nor Home Depot do service and repairs on any tractors they sell regardless of brand. They have no tractor repair shop as Sears does. In the case of Deere tractors sold there, they are aligned with a local Deere dealership that does service, warranty work and other repairs--usually the same one that did setup of the Deere tractor. For that matter they don't repair or do warranty work on large appliances they sell either as neither store has a repair shop for that either.

I'm a little less certain how Cub Cadet is handled but I suspect the new owner is told to contact a specific local authorized CC dealer and repair center. In the case of other MTD made and Husqvarna tractors they no doubt have a link to a local authorized independent repair place for these as well. Sears MIGHT actually be willing to do warranty work on a Husqvarna sold at Lowes since they repair them anyway as a dealer, and warranty work in a potential profit center for the repair shop. For them its just a matter of collecting payment for the warranty repair from Husqvarna rather than from you.

Hippy...My Bright red 2003 Ford Ranger XLT with Fiberglass bed and hood, seeems to be a REAL Ford. It gots one a dem blue oval thingies in da center a de chrome grill.tbk

I just cannot believe it! Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak about JDs and MTDs and Toros and Sabres and Ford Rangers ......and yet NO ONE has jumped in to defend the Cavalier yet. What the heck is this forum coming to anyway?

Since you brought up the Cub Cadet. The guy at Home Depot told me that the new Zero turn tractor is made only for Home Depot and you can't get it at a dealer. Just thought it was curious as we are on this topic

The guy at Home Depot is like all other guys at Home Depot. He doen't know his a$$ from his elbow. A week ago, I was in my local Case/International dealer and he had one of the new I1000 Zero Turn Tractors on the floor alongside one of CC's true ZTR's. So much for that theory.

And if you go to the Cub Cadet website, there's no mention of that tractor being exclusive to HD>

Guess I'm really in trouble-- all my tractors are Massey Ferguson's but where really built by Snapper!

Neither Lowes nor Home Depot do service> only a jerk would buy at Lowes or Home Depot and expect the dealer to service.They will, but it wont be the same!!!

The Lowes in my area has a sighn near there John Deere display.It tells who the servicing dealer is and there are business cards there you can pickup.The servicing dealer at this Lowes is my local dealer.Not the same store but same dealer he has 5 John Deere dealerships in this area.I would buy from him myself.But I dought he cares if it was bought at Lowes.

The John Deeres at one of my local Home Depot all have the local JD Dealership's keychain on the keys in the ignition.

The real truth and not a myth is if you don't keep care of them the turn to junk like anything else. I wouldn't put most dealers on such a high pedestal. They like casino's and your money.

I can't help but laugh when I see the Deeres near the light bulb section in both big box stores.

Rat's!
I got the owners' edition hat with my HD-purchased JD but NO keychain. Of course I did get a subscription to "the Furrow".

The Toro riders are now made by MTD, but the zero-turn is still toro except they now build them cheap and crappy like those JOHN DEERE formerly known as "SABER". You can't get quality mowers in box stores and most shops don't offer you priority repair service if bought from a box stores.

BUY A GRAVELY!

arichard21-
I'm a "no-nothing" home depot employee, but guess what? I "know" how to spell "know". Geesh.

1st off, it's called shorthand. People(ppl) do it all the time on msg boards,blogs,emails,texts,etc....
2nd, he was referring to the outdoor power equipment HD associate. NOT ALL HD employees, K. So unless they have worked for a JD dealer, Cub Cadet dealer, MTD dealer etc,etc.... then no, they know NOTHING about them and just sell them and have a script memorized.

I purchased my JD at Home Depot because I could use my VISA and get an additional year's warranty on top of the regular JD warranty. Same price at both the JD dealer and HD but the dealer didn't accept credit cards.

The manager at my local JD dealer (Ritchie Tractor) told me the JD mowers at Home Depot get a cursory 20 minute inspection out of the box while they (Ritchie Tractor) give their mowers a thorough inspection (perhaps an hour) out of the box. And, when I took my JD in for regular checkups at my local dealer, Ritchie Tractor told me I'd be at the back of the line since I did not buy my mower from them. Such is life (grin).

Part of the myth is that the John Dealer is expensive. I am a comparison shopper and have bought the JD service kit from the dealer for many years. I can not buy the components in the kit at the big box stores for the price I can get them in the kit from the JD Dealer. This is true when I even substitute some of the generic items the Big Box carries. Additionally with the kit I always get good reliable answer to my questions about the tractor.

When I need a bolt or other part I can go in, tell them model number of the tractor and they will give me the exact piece I need. No speculations if it will fit. Again at what I consider a reasonable price.

At our local Lowes store in the Raleigh area, each tractor comes with a sticker on the body behind the seat that says to check with the JD Dealer for service. In addition the sticker gives all of the contact information for the local JD dealer. This has a side benefit, as you get to go to the JD Dealer and rub elbow with the guy who is there with a problem with his huge combine or hay baler and learn what the other half of John Deere is all about.

Final while occasionally you will get a summer temp who will feed you a line or know nothing about what they are selling, I have found the core Lowes employees are very knowledgeable about the items they are selling. As a DIY'er I could not do half of what I do without their input.

yes you can get a jd from lowes but it will never touch my 28 year old deere with a 14hp kohler engine that i bought for $500.. replaced the head gasket and itruns and cuts just as good as any other jd out there and the difference is.. it will last another 25yrs. so when your in the market for a deere anddon't have five grand. buy an old used one with a kohler that is rebuildable and you can work on it yourself. to hell with spending several thousand dollars on one at lowes and then turning around and having someone else charge me a crap load to fix something that should have never broken to begin with. even the expensive john deeres are made no where near as good as the originals.

There seems to be a homeowner spending threshold of $1499 on lawn tractors and to be honest the average home owner would likely be served fine by anything in the $999 - $1499 range if they take care of their equipment.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

JD made the decision to sell at this price point to increase sales. If truly a lesser quality machine, one would expect more repairs. Why the dealer would not welcome this extra repair revenue escapes me. My guess is that, under warranty, JD does not reimburse them at the same rate they charge regular folk for non-warranty repairs. In either event, they are shooting themselves in the foot by not playing fair with all customers. In fact, if you believe the ‘lesser quality’ $1499 model indeed tarnishes the JD reputation, you’d think the dealers would be going out of their way to treat you right to make up for JD’s ‘foolish mistake’ to sell that model to begin with.

Further, the 'cursory' 20 minute inspection vs an hour at the dealer sounds fishy to me to begin with but putting you at the back of the line just further hurts the JD name by creating droves of disgruntled customers who no doubt will be coming on with their ‘lesser quality units’ that were only ‘cursory’ inspected now having to wait weeks for a repair! I really personally think the $1499 model is probably fine for your average homeowner. I t may not last 25 years but so what…your not paying $3000 for it. I think it offends the buyers of the expensive machines more than anyone else.

I recently bought a Cub for $1699 after looking at a JD, an Ariens and a Husky. My preference is always to support my local dealer when possible and many times the pricing is the same anyway. The JD dealer pointed out he did not sell the $1499 HD model…’plastic tranny and crappy seat’ he said. I respected him for telling me that. Sadly he really did not want to spend more than 2 to 3 minutes with me to explain why I needed to spend $300 more for his base model…sort of had the attitude…’Bye…gotta go sell some big farm equipment’. I quickly moved on. The Husky dealer was not thrilled that Lowes sold his brand either BUT…he bad mouthed the Husky in general anyway and tried to move me to some $3500 thing I could not afford. Again, I respected that but I moved on. I ended up buying my cub at a dealer. I probably would have been just as well served by the JD or the Husky…

I have been going to John Deere Dealers for over 10 years and I think that your experience with the John Deere Dealer was the exception rather than the rule for John Deere dealer.

The Indianapolis dealer serviced the big guys, and I know from experiences that when I came in for parts for my lawn tractor, I got the same service as the gut with the huge combined that was in line in front of me.

While the dealer I have been working with here in Raleigh is not set up to handle the huge equipment, when I come in with to get parts for my yard tractor, they treat me the same as the the farmers who are there about their tractors.

It is good service people that make the reputation of a company, and does not matter if it is Walmart, Lowes, or the John Deere dealer.

Unless it is an extremely small organization, the person interacting with the customer is probably not aware of the financial transaction in the office. The salesman he know that if he treats the customer well he is much more likely to make a sale, that if he is rude to him. Part of treating the customer well is answering all of his questions. (No matter how dumb he thinks they are.)