There is a dangerous sentence in the earthmoving industry: “We got it cheap.” Cheap is seductive. A bargain feels like a bargain. You find a 20-tonne excavator for R600,000 when similar machines are selling for R900,000. You feel pretty good about yourself. You have just saved R300,000. Or have you? Because there is a fundamental difference between: The price you pay for an excavator and The cost of owning that excavator. And if you don't understand the difference, that “chea

“It doesn't run.” Those four words can either be the beginning of a fantastic excavator deal... ...or the beginning of a very expensive mistake. Non-running excavators are everywhere. Machines with blown engines. Machines with failed hydraulic pumps. Machines that have been sitting in a yard for five years. Machines damaged in accidents. Machines that were simply parked when the owner decided that the repair wasn't worth the money. And because they don't run, they can sometim

It looked like a bargain. The excavator was advertised at R500,000. The machine looked reasonably good. The seller was motivated. The buyer had been looking for a machine for weeks. So he bought it. Six months later, he had spent nearly another R500,000 keeping it alive. Suddenly, his R500,000 excavator had become a R1 million excavator. And here's the uncomfortable truth: It wasn't necessarily a bad purchase. The problem was that he had only calculated the purchase price. He

When it comes to making a significant investment in heavy machinery, such as an excavator, deciding whether to purchase new or used can...

In the lifecycle of owning and operating earthmoving machinery, there comes a pivotal moment akin to certain stages of marriage: the...