Rust on a brand new tractor

Not an attorney, but have spent my share of time all over Texas dealing with Texas business law in different jurisdictions from small claims court to county-court-at-law to district courts and criminal courts.

If you are in west Texas your local small claims court judge is likely a graduate of St. Marys, and trained in Texas law. If you go with a contract theory, then it is substantial performance that counts, and not dot every i and cross every t. It would be hard to prove how you have been substantially damaged.

Believe me, I understand your aggravation. Not every transaction I have had with the counter people and mechanics have met NASA certification. And I have sampled a number of dealerships across Texas. The pool of workers for Kubota is the same pool for the other color brands. People make mistakes or are distracted by their own problems.

Your machine left Louisiana with a different standard for rust than west Texas. It was transported with who knows what regard for in-transit wear. Your local dealer was pre-occupied or counted on the LA dealer to inspect the machine. Or maybe his detail man was sick that week. Your expectation was rust-free, because that is what your local conditions are.

For me, an expectation of six-sigma performance leads to disappointment in the ag world. It's not my privilege to train other folks in superior customer service. Mostly I am trying to meet my own deadlines and resource constraints - so if I need to I fix it myself and go on to the next to-do.

Long explanation of picking the essential battles due to constraints of time and resources, and ignoring the usual ups and downs. Burning a bridge usually means lost time and money later.

All best wishes that you will come to enjoy your new machine.

Can you return it to the Louisiana dealer?

I assume you paid shipping to Texas and would also have to pay for return?


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From the pictures which indicate excessive rust on this tractor, it appears to be a bad paint job from the get go, and it will likely continue to deteriorate faster than normal as time passes. Many tractors spend years out in the elements and do not show rusting like this tractor. One might say it’s only cosmetic, but a few years down the road it will get much worst IMHO. I would continue dealing with Kubota (local), and Kubota Corp. to resolve the issue and if not sucessful, move on to other options i.e.- Media/Consumer Reporting Agencies.
I sincerely hope Kubota steps up to fix the issue and provide you the tractor that was as described by the selling dealer.

LittleOrangeTractor

I think your being very fair, especially if all you want is some paint and new decals. If that tractor was sitting on the lot for sale they would have done the same to be able to sell it as new. Really your willingness to do the painting yourself and apply the stickers to me shows your a stand up guy. You just want a fair deal and at this point I would want an apology for the hassle.
Good Luck

Not to put too fine a point on it, but weren't there a major storm/ flooding event in Louisiana within the last few years?

That level of corrosion, to me, screams of flood damage. Brackish/ salty water.

I'm familiar with the area, and a few miles makes a huge difference in flooding.

The tractor lots are not in an area that floods.

In the summer it stays 95 degrees F, 95% humidity - a long summer. Add to that 60 inches of rain a year and rust is normal. No salt water involved.

I am disappointed to hear of a dealer that is as reluctant to please as this one appears to be.

I'm also surprised you accepted the shipment. But in any case, I'm mostly surprised you've not at least told us where the selling dealership is located other than the state. In my own experience, there are some areas of Looeasyana that are very prone to this sort of cosmetic damage. Norco (northwest of N.O.) is one area that abounds in refineries, chemical plants, etc. that spew all sorts of contaminants, acids, and other unpleasant things into the atmosphere and if that tractor sat out in that stuff for two years I'm not surprised to see this sort of damage.

Personally, although I don't expect a tractor to be a beauty-queen all it's life... I'd expect it to start out looking new, regardless of it's year of mfr. This story is a reminder that good service from a long-distance seller is difficult to enforce.

Revisiting this thread it appears the solution is if you want a tractor that looks like it was stored in West Texas storage conditions you need to purchase a tractor from a West Texas dealer. The savings you thought you’d get buying out-of-state in sales taxes/discounts/etc. resulted in what you got once you accepted the shipment. (The other point to be made is that pre-paid shipping can come back to bite you. That’s one reason some buyers insist on COD.)

Anyway, how’s the tractor holding up?

W7AX said:

Looks like serious rust to me. I'd remove the paint, sandblast it , prime it and then a good paint job. Just guessing but looks to me like a poor paint job to begin with.

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Looks like bad initial prep prior to painting to me.

nick2010tundra said:

I think your being very fair, especially if all you want is some paint and new decals. If that tractor was sitting on the lot for sale they would have done the same to be able to sell it as new. Really your willingness to do the painting yourself and apply the stickers to me shows your a stand up guy. You just want a fair deal and at this point I would want an apology for the hassle.
Good Luck

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Agree. You are not being unreasonable.

Heck, my wife's new RTV (Sidekick) has some rust on it around a few welds. Just tool some rattlecan black and fixed it a few minutes ago. She will never know, only I will.