jth3guy makes an excellent point when discussing surplus employees, spare buildings, etc resulting from what looks certainly to be a quagmire.

Then the point of trying to re-sell his customer on a piece of even higher quality equipment than he sold them last year. Especially when they are both identical in manufacture. Yet this is just one isolated geographical region of the United States.

But what's the end result when the Cat & Mitsubishi dealers that share territories right down the street from the Unicarriers store, Nissan and TCM? hmmmmm..... How about that loyal dealer that has been faithful to a manufacturer for years and now finds himself in bed with the same parent as his former arch rival? hmmmmmm?.... Of course, in the beginning, there will all kinds of hype about infringing on the other guys APR, but how long will that hush lipped agreement last? You have all witnessed that since you borrowed four first dollar from the bank to get in to this very lucrative business.

This Kerfuffle is going to resonate throughout the country, not just in a few southern states. "Oh, don't worry about that, that will not have any impact on our dealer network." Right. In a pigs ear.

It looks to me that these short sighted manufacturers are setting themselves up for a real catastrophe down the road. But alas, no one ever said these guys are the sharpest marketing guys on the street.