CEwriter
Senior Member
Here's a story in the latest Associated Equipment Distributors' magazine about a small Arizona materials firm that is crediting their survival in today's tough market to a pair of Chinese LiuGong loaders and the local dealer that convinced him to buy them:
“Our business is all about loading material into trucks, getting it to the wash plant and then out to wholesale companies,” he said. “We load maybe 30 trucks a day. Without loaders we would be dead. And we just couldn’t function under the high payments on some of the bigger name brand loaders. I don’t see $100,000 worth of difference between the different loaders out there.”
Another key factor in deciding to purchase the LiuGong loaders from Earhart was the dealership’s willingness to work with Combs Materials to determine affordable financing terms, explains Combs.
“We would not be in business right now if Earhart had not stepped up to the plate as a dealer and gave us terms that could keep us in business,” he said.
There's a lot in the story worth reading, but I think these two points sum up the company's motivation for going with the Chinese brand:
'For Combs Materials, it’s all about the bottom line. By purchasing the LiuGong loaders, Combs says his company has been able to save between $2,000 and $3,000 on the monthly payment, plus an additional amount on fuel costs.'
'Combs says dealers who aren’t willing to send him replacement equipment when his breaks down aren’t worth his time.'
No short-term risk.
Of course the cost per hour has to be awfully difficult to estimate when you got no idea what the loader's economic life or residual value might be.
L
“Our business is all about loading material into trucks, getting it to the wash plant and then out to wholesale companies,” he said. “We load maybe 30 trucks a day. Without loaders we would be dead. And we just couldn’t function under the high payments on some of the bigger name brand loaders. I don’t see $100,000 worth of difference between the different loaders out there.”
Another key factor in deciding to purchase the LiuGong loaders from Earhart was the dealership’s willingness to work with Combs Materials to determine affordable financing terms, explains Combs.
“We would not be in business right now if Earhart had not stepped up to the plate as a dealer and gave us terms that could keep us in business,” he said.
There's a lot in the story worth reading, but I think these two points sum up the company's motivation for going with the Chinese brand:
'For Combs Materials, it’s all about the bottom line. By purchasing the LiuGong loaders, Combs says his company has been able to save between $2,000 and $3,000 on the monthly payment, plus an additional amount on fuel costs.'
'Combs says dealers who aren’t willing to send him replacement equipment when his breaks down aren’t worth his time.'
No short-term risk.
Of course the cost per hour has to be awfully difficult to estimate when you got no idea what the loader's economic life or residual value might be.
L