You own the $500,000 tractor. You're not allowed to fully fix it.

A John Deere combine can cost half a million dollars. The farmer buys it outright and owns the steel, the engine, every bolt. But the machine runs on Deere's software, and that software answers to Deere.

The repair is finished and the half-million-dollar combine is owned outright, but the console will not unlock without a dealer authorization code, and the dealer is a day away while the wheat stands.: DEALER CODE REQUIRED · YOURS, $500,000 · new sensor, done · the code, a day away

When a sensor fails, the combine can throw a code that idles it right in the field. Swapping the part is not enough. The repair has to be unlocked with a dealer's authorization code, entered through diagnostics only Deere's authorized technicians carry. During harvest, a day spent waiting for that technician is a day the crop sits. The tractor sells once. The parts, the diagnostics, and the dealer visits sell for as long as the machine runs. That loop put Deere at the center of the American right-to-repair fight: a 2023 agreement with farm groups, then an FTC lawsuit in January 2025 over the repair restrictions.

Deere sells the tractor once. It sells the permission to fix it forever.