Don't assume you can get parts for any grey market machine, ask locally first if they'll sell you parts before you buy any machine, I went around with a local dealer not when I bought mine, but years later when dealerships changed hands, seems the new dealership decided they'd rather sell machines than parts, told me straight up they'd trade mine in as is and I could buy a good used, non grey market machine..................................told them great, I'd do just that, but not with them in a different brand completely, along with every single piece of equipment of their brand and color I owned...............................corporate had a few meetings after quite a few guys told them the same thing and several months later.....................they had a change of heart and now will bend over backwards to get me whatever I need for my grey market hitachi.
For what its worth, Hitachi makes a great excavator, hands down by far the best machine I've ever owned in all of the machines I have, but I'd tell you to not buy that machine today, especially not a grey market machine, its too old and many of the parts will soon no longer be even able to get. With the deal deere made with Hitachi and how some of the deere dealers have treated customers in the last few years, I'd opt for another brand completely myself. Komatsu, Case, Linkbelt or Cat would be towards the top of my list and in about that order as well, a few might come before Cat on my list if I thought about it long enough and was seriously looking for another excavator today to buy. Dealer support would be a big deal to me, dealer stability would be in second place in my thoughts as well.