I'm new here, and came here to find out about a Thomas 1700 that my neighbor had for sale. It was a 2003 that he bought "new" at an auction. It only had 200 hours on it, and was for his personal use around his property - built house, dug swimming pool, gravel driveway, move snow, etc. He only wanted $9,800.00 for it.
At first, I thought it was a great deal. He let me use it for a week to try it out. I had NO experience with skid-steers, but was able to learn fast, and in a few days was able to run it like a pro. I inquired as to the real value on this site. Here's some of the things I learned:
1) I tried unsuccessfully for 4 or 5 days to get ahold of Thomas on the phone, to ask about parts availablity and about thier "bankruptcy" status, etc. I never got anything but a voice-mail, and never got a call back.
2) I looked for the closest dealer to my location and found it was about 2 hours away. I called the dealer, and they said that they didn't have any better luck getting ahold of Thomas recently, but that parts were still available, although it sometimes took a week or two to get something.
3) I learned that part of Thomas' current re-organization means they are moving thier manufacturing base to GJK, a sub-contractor in China, (this is on their web-site at:
http://www.thomasloaders.com/FAQ.asp#FAQ9 ) and their Quality Canadian made machines will be no more. (I don't care what anyone says,... everything from shoes to tools that I have ever purchased that was once made in North America, and then made in China was NEVER as good of quality as the original, and the final price I usually paid for the new product as a result of this "money-saving" move was never any lower than before, it just meant the "company" could make a higher profit.)
4) I learned that when Thomas was trying to establish itself in the United States, they developed a dealer network, but then they wanted to increase their market share faster, so they sold a couple thousand "brand new" units per year for a couple years, at auctions for average of $12K to $15K, which was about 1/2 the newly established dealer network price, so many of the dealers quit trying to sell the Thomas units, and it ended up hurting thier market share, and driving the price & value of the Thomas units down.
5) I learned that if you want to re-sell your Thomas, you have to sell it to someone who doesn't know enough about skid-steers and/or isn't willing to do this much research to learn, in order to get a good price. i.e.: I mentioned above that my neighbor had the '03, 1700 for $9,800.00 with only 200 hours on it, and if it was a Bobcat or other "name brand" that would have been a fantastic price, but since it was a Thomas (even though it is a fine, well-built, simple, powerful machine,) people in the skid-steer industry would not pay that much for it because they knew what the auction prices were. Yoder & Frey Auctioneers sold a similar Thomas unit a month or so ago, a couple miles from my house for only $3,500.00.
http://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/detail.aspx?OHID=6891840&GUID=6d617749fd7348d4a5f8fc5d6ebde903 I started to worry that if I got it, and then wanted to get rid of it for some reason, that I may not be able to get back what I was going to pay, and didn't want to take that chance.
6) After using the 1700 for a few weeks, I found it to be a powerful, comparable unit, simple, easy to work on, easy to maintain, etc. For instance, ALL the oil in the Thomas (engine, drive-chains, hydraulics) was the same 10-30! That was GREAT! But, with the move to China, and the questionable resale value, I ended up not getting the machine for a combination of all these reasons. I'm currently looking at '07 John Deere 317.