Good luck in your ultimate decision. The good news is that as far as I am aware, all the major manufacturers make a pretty good tractor. You are not likely to go too wrong with any of them.
For utility, shuttle, dinking around work the hydrostat transmission can not be beat. If a person is going to hook up to a plow, disc or heavy tillage and work it in that application regularly for long hours it is not the best choice. Too much loss in the transmission mechanism. Several better choices available for that application (gear, power shift and CVT which incorporates some hydrostat features but usually either gear or hydrostat are the two only available choices in the compact size tractors). But for the average home owner that mostly does utility jobs involving going back and forth a lot, and if especially the wife or kids will be driving it occasionally, the convenience of the hydrostat transmission beats gears and a clutch hands down.
Glad you enjoyed the thread. If I have something I think will be useful to others concerning small tractors I try to add it to this thread just for that reason. I also thought there was a lot of good information and opinions that are worth keeping the thread alive occasionally for new members that come along.
