New Or Used For A 5 Ton X?

ruskent

I kind of need to buy a Mini x. I have my cat salesman coming out tommorrow to talk about a new 304. I am not total convinced i will put enough hours on it to justify new. I know i will use it enough to justify owing a machine instead of renting it.


I have been checking out some used machines on the net. Whats the rule of thumb for a safe number of hours on a used mini x?


My biggest fear is buying a used machine and having proablems with it. I am not a mechanic and really have no interest in working on equipment besides normal maintenance.

What should i do/buy?

Anyone know what interest rates cats running now?
Matt

dayexco

good way to sort them out....tell them you want a 3 day 'try and buy".........then you want a zero deductible 90 day bumper to bumper warranty...IN WRITING!!! if they shy away from the deal.........shy away from the machine.

__________________
someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

fhdesign

Just saw a 304 go by on a trailer today, looked nice. The really nice used machines with something around 500-750hrs on it, are usually close to the price of a new one, especially if you figure in the better finance rate of a new one.
I'm a Cat fan but don't rule out the other brands, in that size machine they're all pretty good and probably less money.

Kgmz

We just bought a new Cat D3G a couple of months ago. Cat offered us something like 1% for 3 years, 2% for 4 years, and 3% for 5 years. They also threw in a extended warranty (Cat's Extended Service Coverage Premier) and we got a little better than 10% off of list price. And they loaned us a new D3G until ours got here, we ordered one with a enclosed cab and all they had in stock were open cabs.

ruskent

Sales man will be out tommorrow. I am going to try to get him to rent me it for a month and credit me the $ back if i buy it. Just to make sure its the right size.

Cherryhill_cons

Im in the same boat as you, except i am looking at a used 308 bsr with 4000 hrs. Looks to be in good shape and i was told i could rent it for one month and 100% of the rental would be put towards the machine if i buy it. sounds decent. Also i would recomend checking out the terex machines. I used a hr42 ( bigger then what you were looking for) and I was quite impressed. And they are about 20 k less then the catepillar of similar size.

woodmagman

Watch the rent to own deals...have then quote you a price for the product you are looking for before you take it out. It is real easy to tack the rental cost onto the product price when you don't know the product price....Cat gave me a skid steer for a day last fall, knowing we were in the market for a mini-excavator. They set us up real nice once we were finished our home work last week..303.5 C CR...plenty of dig, tight to buildings, 2 buckets and a thumb, the plumbing is in place to hammer and auger...heated cab,A.C., and set for stereo.

Little

We have (3) 303 Cat mini excavators and they have all been pretty good. One thing i dont like about them is their lack of tracking power witch can get pretty annoying at times when trying to work on any kind of incline or trying to turn. The only problems we have encountered was at first the tracks kept splitting and coming apart, and also we lost two turntable gears that got destroyed due to what looks like manufacturing installation error. It appeared the factory installed the gear to far and it was just grinding into metal. Besdies that they are pretty versatile.

__________________
Commercial Construction, Central Jersey

jazak

Well whats going for you with a new machine is;

Lower interest, warranty, easy to sell (if it didn't work out) & you know no one else has even abused it.

If you'll use it enough to make the payments & a profit then go with it. Otherwise get a decent used one with under 600hr.s and you should be OK. Just have a trust worthy mechanic go over it for you.....

lukachuki

Rusk,


As you know I like my kubota kx161.

__________________
"The problem with internet quotes is, you never know if they are authentic." -Abraham Lincoln-

Less with the jaw more with the paw!