Majority of people I know who have bought Cats, wether it be series 1, B, C, or D regret it. I know a few who love them and had luck with them.
My dad owned 2 416's. An 88 and a 94 B. An owner operator who took good care of them and had nothing but problems. The 416 had a bad torque convertor, hydralic pump go at low hours while the machine was trenching in the road, transfer case problems.
The 416B around 2,000 hours burnt through several quarts of oil between each 250hour service, ended up being a bad set of rings. Trans problems. The banana boom split across the pin that connects the dipper. Cat knew the machines had these problems and had drilled holes in the boom to camera the inside, told him it was fine only for it to split later. The stabilizer pin snapped. The dump piston was cross threaded from the factory. Some sort of problem were the boom would swing to the side on its own.
Thats all I can remember for now. 4,100 hours on a super L other than a thermostat, muffler mount bolts, regular maintnance, and a stack or 2, no problems.
If Cat had better qaulity they would have a decent hoe. Like I said, I know quite a few people who will never go with a cat backhoe again after having many problems.I think John Deere is the best all around backhoe out right now. I think Case is still the best for manueverabilty.
Case and Deere are proven to be reliable in my eyes. Majority of my backhoe experiance is on Case 580's so I will lean towards Case right off the bat.