New Holland 2035 w/loader $27,135
Bobcat CT235 w/loader $21,921
Those are list prices of the two tractors I'm looking at buying. The New Holland is laid out much better in terms of ergonomics, the Bobcat, by comparison appears to be a much older design. Both will provide the same functions, do the same jobs. The New Holland is easier to operate and overall I believe will be the more comfortable machine to operate for long hours.
But here is the rub, that Bobcat price actually comes down another couple thousand dollars below the list price because of the free loader. New Holland is offering free financing, but I'm not planning to finance.
If I was a commercial buyer who owned a landscaping company or any sort of operation where seat time on the tractor would be 15+ hours a week then I'd buy the New Holland. Honestly I think that layout and placement of the controls of the New Holland is superior enough that for a user who requires a lot of seat time, the New Holland will actually be faster to operate and would save a commercial user time, which in the long run, would save money.
However, as a homeowner, I can't justify the huge price difference.
There is a price difference between the two on list prices, and both dealers will deal down. So the 'spread' pretty much remains the same. Then there are incentives offered by the manufacturers, and that is where Bobcat brings over $3000 to the table that NH doesn't. So in the end the after haggle price difference is in the $8K range, but the NH dealer is tying to find some money so that may erode back down to something more reasonable???
I'll openly admit that NH is the better designed tractor for doing a lot of work. There is no question in my mind about that fact. NH is the better tractor if you live in the seat of the tractor and need to make it do what you want. The controls fall perfectly under your hands, they are color coded, some are even shaped differently so you can tell just by feel what you are grabbing, no need to even look down at the controls. For speed of work, ease of working, ergonomics on the NH are vastly superior. I get all that.
But I don't live in my tractor seat. And that is a whole lot of money to talk about.
I have really come to appreciate my little New Holland, it has PROVED TO ME that is really was a very wise choice the last time around when I moved to a smaller tractor. I know that because this search for a larger machine has required me to really find a machine that would offer real advantages and most of the larger machines only offered very marginal, if any, improvements in capacity. Some actually had less capacity despite being on larger frames and with more horsepower. Now I need to move back to a bigger tractor.
So here I sit, knowing darn well that the New Holland is really the better tractor. I have a prime example of that sitting on my front lawn right now in my current New Holland. This is NOT a 'brand loyalty' thing because I'm the last guy in the world to be loyal to a brand. I'm loyal to quality and specs.
And so I look at the Bobcat and I see some excellent specs, specs that, by anyone's measure are a statistical dead heat with the NH 2030 and 2035 specs. The engine sounds good, the loader control valve was a bit quick to jerk up the bucket but that was probably because I was unused to it and it would likely mellow under my hand with practice. 3pt was smooth and powerful in lifting. Mechanically it had lots of nice features that are homeowner friendly (easy to get to filters, fill points, dipsticks). I didn't like that I had to lift the loader arms, raise the hood, and flip down a side panel to clean the radiator filter screen. But most things were easy to access. The controls are not in the right place, they are just a bit too far back, even with the seat all the way to the rear, the control levers were a bit too far back. The fit and finish of the Bobcat was not as nice as the New Holland, the Cub Yanmar or the Kubotas that I looked at but it was pretty darn good and better than anything that was on the market 5 or 6 years ago. So every quality tractor brand has improved in that regard. The Bobcat lacks some detail points that NH excels upon, but those are really more cosmetic than anything else so they clearly are not disqualifiering points.
And I guess that is my problem, I see a tractor that is "darn good" and clearly it is "more than good enough" but it is not "as good" as the other brands in many little ways. But it is a whole lot cheaper, especially with current incentives, and its a pretty nice machine as it is. So I am leaning toward buying it.
Not sure if I can get him to throw in a free hat.