A guy I work with has an old farm house and dairy barn with 10 acres of land. He head been looking at a number of older farm tractors to buy, including N's. He ended up going to look at the new JD's and they hooked him into buying a glorified lawn mower. He got a 18 HP and a 54" cut with some front hydraulics for almost $4,000 even and he financed it with JD at 12.9% interest (yes, that is what they call a 'loan sale'). Plus he want's to get the snow blower attachment now for about $1,150.He said that he liked the fact that he would have to do no repairs to the machine since it had a warranty, I think it is for 18 or 24 months. Plus he got financing, heck a bank loan is less than 12.9% around here, and no payments til October. He just looked at the paper work and groaned when he realized I was right by telling him he will still generate interest expense on the loan til he makes the first payment. Oh, and it is a 36 month loan. Between the $4k for the machine plus the interest expense they could have got a real nice N and a attachment or two. He said that he isn't a mechanic like me, heck if I am no mechanic at all, I say a prayer and look for someone to help me. Sorry for spouting off, but I just can't understand how or why he spent money this way, especially when he doesn't have much. And the kicker is that he is talking about a little 4x4 JD with a loader for around $20K, so he can do the big projects...I just don't get it, probably because I am cheap.
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