Key Takeaways for Decision Makers
CONTRACTORS/RENTERS: If your only concern is monthly cost, disregarding brand affinity and operating costs, renting New Holland, Daewoo, or JCB crawler mounted hydraulic excavators proves to be the least expensive route.
If you find yourself needing to use a piece of equipment for multiple months throughout the year, you might also find yourself having to make a difficult rent versus buy decision. When looking at crawler mounted hydraulic excavators in particular, we see that the average monthly rental cost is 19% lower than the average cost to own per month. Some manufacturers, however, have much higher rental and ownership costs associated with them.
Rental Rates
In the rental market, New Holland is the least expensive with an average cost of $4,920.00 per month. Daewoo isn’t far behind with a monthly rental cost of $5,850.44 on average. JCB rounds out the top three least expensive manufacturers to rent per month with a rate of $5,904.43. On the other end of the spectrum, Komatsu, Volvo, and Caterpillar top the list of most expensive manufacturers to rent with average monthly rates of $8,634.09, $8,447.64, and $8,291.55 respectively.
Ownership Costs
New Holland is also the least expensive to own per month with ownership costs of $6,029.38, 18% higher than the average rental rate. Daewoo once again falls in the second spot at $6,954.44 per month, 16% more than the average rental cost. Kobelco fills the number three spot in least expensive to own per month with a cost of $7,627.94, 19% higher than its rental cost. Komatsu again tops the most expensive list at $10,585.76 per month to own, 18% higher than its rental rate. It is closely followed by Hitachi ($10,580.68 per month) and Caterpillar ($10,098.57 per month) rounding out the top three most expensive manufacturers to own.
Standouts
As mentioned previously, the average variance between rental costs and ownership rates is 19% with rental rates being lower. The difference in rental versus owning for most manufacturers stayed around this average, but a few in particular stood out. Hitachi costs 22% more to own per month than it does to rent. JCB costs 26% more to own and Case 27% more to own, both well above the average variance. These higher variances reveal the potential for better deals when renting Hitachi, JCB, or Case crawler mounted hydraulic excavators versus other manufacturers.