Comments on: Obama pressures GOP Congressman in front of hometown crowd, Congressman doesn’t bite

By: Dana

Dana — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:40:06 +0000

Jennifer: Most other equipment is sold by non-exclusive distributors, and they don’t have their parts locked up the way Cat does.

By: Brontefan

Brontefan — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:47:36 +0000

RE: “They know that this bill is not stimulus. They know that this bill will not do anything to create long-term, sustained economic growth. This bill is too big to get it wrong.”
This bill is too big to get it right! There is no way any legislation this huge, done in this short time span, under cover of “crisis” with not enough time to read & comprehend–will prove to be all its proponents claim. What we have here is “sour grapes” and “shoving to the other side.” I wonder when the millions who are busy drinking the Kool Aid will wake up and smell the rotten eggs?

By: jennifer

jennifer — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:08:21 +0000

dana//I don’t know much about this stuff but if Cat has a service network and the others don’t then how do you get the other ones fixed??//non-franchised dealers maybe? why are they cheaper?

By: Dana

Dana — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:04:35 +0000

I’ve said this before: what is killing Caterpillar is that they are over priced!

Perhaps I’m a minority amongst your readers in this, but I am a heavy equipment operator, and I’ve run Cat equipment; they build good stuff. But I’ve also run Kawasakis and Volvo-Michigans and Internationals and Dressers, and while I have personal preferences, when it comes to performance, Cats are not worth the price differences.

It’s been a while since I’ve had any input on purchasing, but back in the late 1990s you could get a similarly-sized Kawasaki or Volvo loader for $30,000 to $40,000 less than a Cat. An individual operator might have a preference, but a purchasing manager for a large company is going to be looking at things like productivity and cost of operation, and when he sees that an operator with a Volvo L-120 loader is going to be able to charge the bins at a concrete plant just as fast and efficiently as an operator with a Cat 966, he’s going to buy the Volvo, and save the company around $30,000.

In addition, Caterpillar has a service network of franchised dealers, and this network leads to more expensive parts and service.

There are a lot of different brands of heavy equipment on the American market today, and they are there because Caterpillar, which used to dominate, let them in, through overpriced equipment.