I'm looking for your anecdotes, rumors, etc, about skid steer dealers in Southern Colorado. Have you had great experiences with someone? Have you heard a certain dealer can't be trusted to fix a problem machine? I need to replace a Cat 262B, and I'm not a mechanic. I'm going to be depending on my dealer, so I really think picking the right dealer is more important than the brand of the machine. I've really liked my Cat, but I haven't felt like the dealer service was great. I mean, yes, there's no problem getting parts for a 20 year old machine (I can't believe it's that old!), and maybe that's not something I can expect from every brand? The closest Cat dealer to me is Wagner in Pueblo, and I feel like every time I've had it in to them the repair took _forever_, cost way more than I thought it would, and every time the machine has come back with some other problem it didn't have, before. For example, I had to have a drive motor replaced. It took almost two months to get my machine back, cost well over $6,000, and I didn't notice until several weeks after I got it back that the work lights on one side no longer function (they were working when it went in). I do have to give them credit that the rental side loaned me a comparable machine for a couple of weeks, since mine broke down in the middle of a big job. I get the sense that if I was a big highway contractor with a huge fleet, I'd probably like Wagner CAT, but as a guy with one skid steer, I'm so far down the priority list that fixing my problem is a total afterthought to them.
So wagner isn't what they used to be. As a mechanic dealing with them and the rumors I heard about them; wash bay killed some control modules, lots of mechanics jumping ship to other dealers, like after being with wagner for 15 years kind of guys. That said I worked for 4rivers and I felt like they always tried to work with customers. Can't comment on bobcat of the rockies, they seemed hit and miss but I don't think they have much retention for good mechanics.