I think the Cat thing has a lot to do with your dealer. Most of my Cat equipment is older, but my dealer will still bend over backwards to get me parts when I need them, even if they are for a 42 year old wheel loader. I am a small operation and most years spend less than $3000 at the Cat dealer. Now when I call for parts for my Hitachi they tell me to buy a newer machine. :Banghead. Around here Komatsu, Hitachi, and Deere are all the same dealer (they have "separate" brances for Deere) and are actually fairly good, but not up to the standards of the Cat dealer. Also I know a lot of Deere guys that have worse attitudes than Cat guys, that can happen with any brand.
I would never buy a Case or Cat backhoe, have tried servreal through the years, but none had the power of a New Holland. I know some people here have horror stories with NH backhoes, but I have always had good luck with them, and very few repairs (we have been running Fords since the early 60s). I would say that the early Cat 300 series excavators (A and B models) were definaly lacking in performance compared to the other machines, but every C series Cat I have been around was equal to or even a little better than the newer Deere, Hitachi, and Komatsus I have been around. Haven't used a D sereies yet. I still don't know why anyone would want an excavator with a Deere engine when they can get the same machine with an Izusu (15,000 trouble free hours with mine, it did get overhauled sometime after that, but it got overheated badly a few times too.
). For loaders I still stick with Cat, I don't know if they still build them as good as they built the old 944, but so far so good, I hear good things about Volvo too. Dozers I would stick with Cat too, the small Deers and Komatsus are nice, but I have always had good luck with my Cats.
I would never buy a Case or Cat backhoe, have tried servreal through the years, but none had the power of a New Holland. I know some people here have horror stories with NH backhoes, but I have always had good luck with them, and very few repairs (we have been running Fords since the early 60s). I would say that the early Cat 300 series excavators (A and B models) were definaly lacking in performance compared to the other machines, but every C series Cat I have been around was equal to or even a little better than the newer Deere, Hitachi, and Komatsus I have been around. Haven't used a D sereies yet. I still don't know why anyone would want an excavator with a Deere engine when they can get the same machine with an Izusu (15,000 trouble free hours with mine, it did get overhauled sometime after that, but it got overheated badly a few times too.
). For loaders I still stick with Cat, I don't know if they still build them as good as they built the old 944, but so far so good, I hear good things about Volvo too. Dozers I would stick with Cat too, the small Deers and Komatsus are nice, but I have always had good luck with my Cats.
