I also usually try not respond to these but in this case, these 'working relationships' are not discontinued as a willing action of AGCO. Most are because the suppliers went broke and are no longer in business. No mfg produces all the components of the products they sell today. When one has to furnish 3-4 hundred parts to customers and thier, rather their, supplier has vanished, one cannot go shopping for a year, the part has to be in the customers hands now. The alternative is to not have the parts at all. Keep in mind AGCO saved about 10 companies who produced the products owned by farmers around the world from having to junk a lot of good equipment. The parts dept takes a lot of pride in working a few near miracles in the process. And yes there are parts form Deere, CHN, AGCO and all others that have simpy been discontinued for many reasons. Try to get a clutch for a Homelite Super Xl chainsaw - Deere bought them, fired all the sales and service people and moved the plant to Mexico and then closed it down and finally sold it to the folks who own Ryobi - Stuff Happens! Deutz Engine partsIJ KHD Deutz went BROKE. The engine was all that survived. For a few years only poor quality repo parts were available other than the high priced OEM replacements. Their cost of production was super high and they sold at a high price to get back in business - their prices were high. NOW the Deutz engine plant is back up to speed and part prices have come down drastically except for a few NlA rare eng parts. After market suppliers who sell Deere and other engine parts now have access to good Deutz parts. I wonder if they can get a replacement crankshaft for those mostly green engines that are breaking and spitting rods out the block. Mind setIJ We sold a used 4240 Deere to a customer and the PTO quit. A a call to our local Deere mechanic told us to look in the filter housing for a certain type paper clutch_brake lining. We told him what was there and guess what, those parts are NlA and have to be replaced with an assembly. In other words the 'perma clutch' ain't. $6,500 later the customer has a new clutch pac, brakes, pto clutch and syncro clutches. All in kit form, all in stock at the Deere dealer ( they had BUNCHES of these in stock - tell you somethingIJ) The point is we could not just replace a brake plate, we had to have a kit because the plate was NlA. It matters not to the customer whether the part is NlA from mighty Deere or if a supplier went out and it had to be resources from a different vendor in the case stated. The result is the same; a $200+ cost rather than a less than $100 part. Mind setIJ Agco explains (blamesIJ) the reason for a high cost on a part. Deere just said, it is a captive part, you cannot get it anywhere else, so bend over. Deere does do a good job on parts prices that after market guys sell in competition. One pays for the captive parts. It is not your "job" to check prices; it is your privelidge to do this with Agco. Try going to a Deere dealer and present him with a part n and tell him to pick up the phone and call parts pricing and to lower the price because it is exorbitantly high in your opinion. Make sure there are a bunch of guys standing around to record the response. I do not wish to pick a fight, it is just where one comes from and attitude. We all have a really tough job to do in making a profit farming and selling_servicing the agricultural market. We simply try to help all in the process. All suggestions are welcome. Just keep in mind that dealers do make money on parts. It keeps them in business. Help them find alternatives, they_we do not have the time to do all the research. They can ususally buy from this vendor and pass the savings on to the customer. When the dealer is not there, try calling up the local parts store and get them to expain how to remove and reset the relief valve on a 20 year old unit.
