…Which is probably just as well for this month’s long-termer, the 92kW/125hp Valtra 8150. No tractor oil painting it may be, yet this Finnishbuilt mid-ranger has many other attributes – as we reveal in the following long-term test
Perceived desirability is a funny thing. Either you’ve got a hold on it, or you ain’t. And if you haven’t, it’s not that easy to get it. Not surprisingly, in the world of tractors it’s the non-Big Four makers that tend to struggle with this aspiration factor – the likes of Renault, Same, Deutz-Fahr and, the marque featured here, the Finnish Valtra brand. The Finns, if pushed, would probably admit that their ‘bar-chat’ appeal in the UK fails to rate as high as some others. Nothing to do with the hardware; it’s just an image/look thing and a factor that the Finns are hoping to address when the dramatically different high hp S-series appears later this year. And, with the flagship launched, it surely can’t be too long before the S’s stylish lines make it down on to the smaller tractors.
Meantime Valtra sticks with its familiar boxy look, enveloping solid, frill-free mechanicals; that’s the reputation, anyway. To gauge whether this no-nonsense name is justified, we profile a 1,723-hour example of the brand, a 92kW/125hp 8150 HiTech. Arriving on farm in June 1999, our long-termer is one of the earlier HiTechs, the HiTech labelling meaning that the tractor comes with a controller and sensors for the smoother engagement of operator instructions, according to load and working conditions. Other than that it’s pretty much a standard 8150, a tractor that has been around in non-HiTech form since March 1996.
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