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I just ran across something that could be useful for anyone comparing the different categories of "dealer/customer satisfaction" with different major manufacturer brands of equipment that they may be considering purchasing or are simply curious about. See link below:

http://www.msdeda.com/pdf/2013 Dealer Manufacturer Survey.pdf

P.S.
BTW, I am pretty pleased with the dealer ratings of Ariens(builds my Gravely) and the all mfg/Ariens specifics(page 22). On the contrary...Bad Boy(that I almost bought) on Page 23 didn't fare so well in almost any categories:0(

P.S.S.
User lawn mower fanatic,
This thread may be better suited for the buying/pricing forum....feel free to move it if you agree:0)

djdicetn said:

I just ran across something that could be useful for anyone comparing the different categories of "dealer/customer satisfaction" with different major manufacturer brands of equipment that they may be considering purchasing or are simply curious about. See link below:

http://www.msdeda.com/pdf/2013 Dealer Manufacturer Survey.pdf

P.S.
BTW, I am pretty pleased with the dealer ratings of Ariens(builds my Gravely) and the all mfg/Ariens specifics(page 22). On the contrary...Bad Boy(that I almost bought) on Page 23 didn't fare so well in almost any categories:0(

P.S.S.
User lawn mower fanatic,
This thread may be better suited for the buying/pricing forum....feel free to move it if you agree:0)

Click to expand...

Notice where Kubota was on everything.

jekjr said:

Notice where Kubota was on everything.

Click to expand...

Sorry to disappoint you...Kubota(red) was only ratings on Kubota tractors....NOT lawn equipment(see Page 9 for overall ratings/color codes). The OPE(green) ratings were for manufacturers of lawn equipment.

P.S.
But if it's any consolation(and no surprise to me) look at Kubota tractor's rating(6.14 overall) compared to John Deere(5.12)!! No comparison there:0)

djdicetn said:

I just ran across something that could be useful for anyone comparing the different categories of "dealer/customer satisfaction" with different major manufacturer brands of equipment that they may be considering purchasing or are simply curious about. See link below:

http://www.msdeda.com/pdf/2013 Dealer Manufacturer Survey.pdf

P.S.
BTW, I am pretty pleased with the dealer ratings of Ariens(builds my Gravely) and the all mfg/Ariens specifics(page 22). On the contrary...Bad Boy(that I almost bought) on Page 23 didn't fare so well in almost any categories:0(

P.S.S.
User lawn mower fanatic,
This thread may be better suited for the buying/pricing forum....feel free to move it if you agree:0)

Click to expand...

Thanks for that link...very interesting and makes me feel even better about my investment

Wow Dixie Chopper took a beating...

djdicetn said:

I just ran across something that could be useful for anyone comparing the different categories of "dealer/customer satisfaction" with different major manufacturer brands of equipment that they may be considering purchasing or are simply curious about. See link below:

http://www.msdeda.com/pdf/2013 Dealer Manufacturer Survey.pdf

Click to expand...

Thank you for posting that link. Some real unexpected results for me to see. I am currently debating between a Hustler Raptor SD and a comparatively priced Snapper of equal size. I was really leaning toward the Snapper because of the better name recognition it had with me, but I was torn because I liked the Hustler's wider wheels. Seeing the dealer feedback comparing Snapper and Hustler, I've been pushed in the direction of the Hustler.

Very good reading. But I think toro scored to high.
Toro has gone to junk. The past couple years.

Makes an interesting bed time story.
However there are lies, dam lies & statistics.

The survey might be indicative however it has only a 41% chance of being an accurate sample of all dealers .
I did some quality control and we used a little mathametical tool called certainty tables to determine exactly how many items we needed to test in order to be sure all of the product was good.
This number comes out at 1475.
Their sample size was 1000 SELECTED dealers and a sample size of 1000 only has a 41% chance of being truely representative of the whole,
So keep 1500 in your head, which is easier to remember.
Any time you see results from any survey , test , product whatever, unless there was at least 1500 samples it is most likely flawed.
The caveat to this is when the entire population is fairly small, like pipe smoking Irish nuns who drive Ride on mower backwards at night or people with a unique set of medical problems.

Please note I did not say that their findings are wrong, they could in fact be 100% correct but their sample size is way too small to guarantee that their findings are true for ALL dealers, brands and mowers in the survey zone ( USA & Canada).

If you think about it , there would be way more than 1000 mower dealers in most States, we have around 600 in Sydney, so 1000 from a population the size of USA & Canada is nothing. I would imaginge there would be more than 1000 dealers in some of the bigger retail franchise chains.

So now I got past the cover page.
The ratings were from 1 to 7.
This is a difficult range for people to envisage.
! to 3 easy, 1 to 5 not bad, 1 to 10 is better.
Think about the posters on this forum and think about haw you would rate them on a 1 to 7 scale.

Next because the scale was too coarse they had to avarage them out to 2 decimal places in order to get some differentiation between the various brands.
Again this is a flawed technique.
Firstly it implies a finner degree of accuracy than can be determined from the input.
It is exactly the same as if I asked you all to measure the lenght of a drive belt avaraged them and stated the drive belt on a cub cadet 137.215"
Secondly there is no indication of the range of the results ( called standard deviations ) so there is no way to tell if a rating was a 50:50 split of 1s and 7s or a 90:10 split of 4s and 3s.
As such an individual event like a strike, shipping delay, factory fire, moron ex-employee etc etc could have skewed the results.

looks very pretty, poor work would get an honours degree in a marketing course and a fail in a maths course.

What is Statistics On Equipment Manufacturers? can anyone explain me???

Thank you for links)

The link does not appear to be working.

Maybe because it was created 5 years ago.

djdicetn said:

I just ran across something that could be useful for anyone comparing the different categories of "dealer/customer satisfaction" with different major manufacturer brands of equipment that they may be considering purchasing or are simply curious about. See link below:

http://www.msdeda.com/pdf/2013 Dealer Manufacturer Survey.pdf

P.S.
BTW, I am pretty pleased with the dealer ratings of Ariens(builds my Gravely) and the all mfg/Ariens specifics(page 22). On the contrary...Bad Boy(that I almost bought) on Page 23 didn't fare so well in almost any categories:0(

P.S.S.
User lawn mower fanatic,
This thread may be better suited for the buying/pricing forum....feel free to move it if you agree:0)

Click to expand...

Link doesn't work

Carscw said:

Very good reading. But I think toro scored to high.
Toro has gone to junk. The past couple years.

Click to expand...

I agree. Doing returns at Home Depot, I had far too many Toros return for gross quality issues. Never had a Honda come back.

Carscw said:

Very good reading. But I think toro scored to high.
Toro has gone to junk. The past couple years.

Click to expand...

My only experience with Toro was a small battery start puxh mower back in '80's. Good unit. Only other Toro I had, still have, is a 1978 Toro Groundsmaster 72 rear engine hydrodrive. It's been a good unit, but the engine on those was Renault generator units. Later Toro went to Ford 4 cyl forklift engines, much better. I like the manual deck PTO engagement, despise electric clutches. Mfrs increasingly using Chinese stuff, and for my money, Chinese electrical parts are just trouble waiting to happen.