A few years back, when somebody decided to purchase a used earth-moving machine, he needed a great amount of luck, and a qualified professional to pick the machines, available on the market, which fits his budget and promises the least amount of technical risk. The given warranty was maximum verbal and the buyer could only trust in his evolved relationship with the seller, when some serious problem developed in the purchased equipment.  

 

Caterpillar was the first to realise the necessity and worth of creating a warranty backgroung for the used equipment, machinery also. It was necessiary, because the increasing number of brand free dealerships meant, and still mean great concurrency to brand dealer networks. This brand dealerships can make some advanteges and stay ahead of competitor with this services, offering relailable background to their customers. And it’s worth it too, because experience and sience shows us, that a new equipment most likely to fail in the short time period after it was put to work, and the number of failures will drop to a low level, and continouos to do so for years/few thousand working hours.  

 

The first, 10-16 months „running in" period is usually fully covered by the 1-4 years (maybe longer) full warranty, given to new machines. The second period, which is greatly influenced by the working conditions and the quality of machine maintenance and repair, is continues til the machine is 6-9 years old. Evaluating the market, we can see that it is mostly occupied by 2-8 years old equipment. So it is plausible to ctreate a warranty system, on which the customer can lean on and with the uniformed requirement system, it can help in selecting the best technical quality machine.  

 

Caterpillar created the „Certified Used" program in 2005, which in the beginning created a warranty background for caterpillar machines sold by Huntraco Zrt., which was not older than 5 years, haven’t performed more than 3500 or 7500 working hours (depending on machine type). The warranty was given for 6 months or 500 working hours (whichever happend first), and covered hydraulic and transmission elements.

 

The machines comply with uniformed requirement system:

•  oil- and filter changes, oil sampling are all done on the machines according to working hours
•  condition of their working parts and undercarriages are better than 50% good
•  the machines are fully operational, ready for work
•  they are in excellente estetical, technical condition
•  service book proves the carried out maintenance, repair  CAT 432D Certified Used macine, prepared for delivery  

 

Thanks to the collected technical experiences during the years, the warranty for the Certified Used machinery, expands countinouosly:
•  right now, Certified Used machines get 6 months / 1500 working hours (whichever happens first) warranty, for their hydraulic and transmission elements
•  from autumn of 2009, 12 months / 5000 working hours warranty can be bought for purchased machines! 

 

As you can see, Huntraco Zrt. as a true market leader, trying to create a safe operational background, in the field of used machinery also. For the many times asked question „New or used?" the answer is simple: in the case of Huntraco Zrt.’s machines, it only depends on the given budget. The terms of warranty are similar.   Attila Kovács  Used Machinery Branch Huntraco Zrt.