I have found someone that will finance me there 2004 cat 420d . Looks clean and not abused . All glass is good, a.c needs charged everyday or week . One drive tire worn , batterys are week . He said it has a new motor installed by a cat dealer. The meter now shows 40 hrs, he said he does not know what the meter said before the engine swap. Should this be a red flag or a good buy? 46k. 10k down the Make payments for 36 months under contract drawn up by lawyer.
67 views and no replies? Well, I'll take a stab at it. If it really is a new Cat installed engine, there should be a dealer that can tell you more about it. On that new of a machine, the replaced hour meter would scare me. The contract would also scare me and I would read it closely because it may state that if you get behind on the payments, you loose the machine, the down payment and everything you paid up to that point. I think you would be better off renting a machine for a while because with a major breakdown, the money stops coming in and the payments are still due plus the machine has to be repaired. This deal might work out for you, but to me it sounds risky.
own Thanks, it does sound risky, the machine doesn't look beat up and I wonder why the engine has been replaced and the meter reset , and no one knows about the previous hours . There's plenty of old machines running strong on the original motor. He says the motor has a warranty that should transfer to the new owner, it's just a scary thought going into.debt like that with so many details missing, part or me thinks the new engine is a good thing and I would know I'm solid there, the other part makes me wonder what the he'll has this thing been threw, buying used you never know for sure
If that meter returns to 0 after 9,999 hrs. it may have 10,040 hrs. If so, there are many other components with hours.
$46,000.00 then possibly add interest on the balance ? Needs a tire so that you have a matched set. AC system needs major repairs. Needs batteries. Supposedly new engine installed but the true hours on the machine are not documented. I am just looking at it in a different way than you may be. My advice is to turn your back on that one and keep looking. Oh yeah and don't forget that the "dealer" that did the engine work on it may be holding a LIEN against it.
I bought one in 07.... didn't pay that much for it then... I wouldn't walk away, I'd run.
Thanks everybody for everything , sounded good but never had the gut feeling to do it, I had been talking with this person almost daily about buying this , I asked for the vin and the shop that installed the new engine , this evening he said he just sold it so I never got the vin. Thanks again for helping me know what is right and what is not . Back to the drawing board, 20 k now for down payment . Search continues .
we have one at work. bought it with 4 hours on it in 2003. it just turned 20,000 hours and other than teeth,tires and hoses its been trouble free and still runs and operates very well. had to replace the forward-reverse switch in the dash twice but thats it. i believe the cost new was less than 70k