[AT] Of the 10 worst tractors, two were made by Fiat. 4 were from brands eventually acquired by Fiat.

[Spencer Yost]

Stephen,

That was my very first question too.  Looks like he’s just writing article to write an article. He found some complaints and put them on the list.     I owned an MT and could not get rid of it fast enough. It was not a terribly useful tractor.   I don’t think it belonged on the 10 worst of all time though. 

But this brings up the sampling error prevalent in so many opinions that I hear. It’s becoming very rare to run across the folks like Herb Metz, George Willer, Gene Dotson, Gil Schwartz and others , who were around and using these machines when they were new. They  probably are the only ones that have an accurate picture of what was a lemon and what wasn’t. I’m 57,  so in reality I am only familiar with each models “survivors” - “residents of the right hand tail of the bell curve” if you will, and  clearly not the units that were  lemons. 

I really like my Ford 861, but did I just get one of the top 10% made in terms of quality and workmanship? If I had bought one new in the late 50s would I have had a 15% chance of buying one causing nothing but heartache and grief? Being this young I can’t answer this question.

Sampling bias is real, alive, and loose in the world. You always have to guard against it


Spencer Yost

> On Feb 12, 2019, at 4:37 AM, Stephen Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> What makes that guy the authority on the subject?
> 
>> On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 12:47 AM James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Two of the 10 were made by Fiat. Another 4 were from brands eventually acquired by Fiat. Amazingly jd has 2 of the 10.
>> 
>> Massey Ferguson had a dud. They used a Cat engine. Should have stayed with Perkins.
>> 
>> http://www.brushcountryfarm.com/2018/05/10worst-tractors-of-all-time-i-enjoyed.html
>> 
>> https://harryferguson.blogspot.com
>> https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5103068/
>> 
>> 
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