Skid Steers on Auction Websites

[Birdhunter]

It seems like auction websites (particularly Iron Planet) have far more Caterpillar skid steers for sale than other brands. I would have thought that more Bobcats would show up at auction than Cats, assuming that they have more market share because of the long history they have in the business compared to Cat. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also I notice that with the new B series Cats, the larger size skid steers (246B, 252B, and 262B) now use the Cat 3044C engine instead of the previous 3034 engine. Were there problems with the 3034 engines? Advertised horsepower is comparable between the two engines even though the displacement is about 15% less on the 3034.

Finally, are there any strong opinions out there when comparing the Caterpillar 252 or 262 to the Bobcat S250. The Bobcat costs less new but, as noted above, the Cats seem far more available at least on the auction site.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

[Scag48]

Cat's are great machines. I'm not going to say much more or I might offend some people in my regards toward Bobcat so I'll just hold my tongue.

[StoneStacker]

I think the new 3044 is a Mitsubishi engine and not a Perkins like the "A" series. I heard it had something to do with Tier II emissions.

[Randy Scott]

If any machine is found to be readily available in the used market, and they are fairly new machines, there is most likely a reason for that, and probably not a good one.

There may be many reasons that you see a lot of Cats on that site. They might not be all bad either. I've never been to the site. It's possible auctioneers like to scoop them up because they have better resale. Who know's?

All I do know is a couple seasons ago there were a boat load of Deere units for sale that were a couple years old with very low hours, well actually, ours was one of them, that's because they are fukkin' junk.

[jd270]

i can tell you that my deere kicks the crap out of all the bobcats ive had and the cat on traks is worhtless on step side hills and traks in general suck in the snowand so far my deere has been the most trouble free skid loader ive ever had

[ksss]

If memory serves me CAT helped IRON PLANET from the begining by running their machines through the auction site. I don't if it was a partnership or what but the CAT dealers seem to use the site very heavily. I don't believe it is a negative on the CAT machines, its just a way of moving used machines. Some manufacturers like Thomas used the Ritchie Bros. auction service as a way to market their machines. I don't know how successful it was as I have not seen the Thomas machines in the auctions or the flyers I have gotten recently. They would run brand new machines at auction. I have watched brand new machines go through for less money (usually 10-12K for a new Thomas) than a used Top Tier machine. Brand name and reputation means something especially at auction.