Slightly bigger toys

[RCP57]

I bought my 96 Kubota back in 07 for 11K with 2800hrs. Everything was booming here then and used machines were generally expensive(new 334 Bobcats were around $65K, 5 year old used ones were still 30K+ with around 4000hours). Mine is a small(K020), grey market machine from Japan but it has given me around 1500hrs of faithful service so far. The amount of excavating I have done for myself and others, it has been one of the best investments I have ever made for sure. I almost bought a 2002, 328 Bobcat for 17K instead. My wife and i went to the dealer after hours so that i could have a better look without the salesman distracting me. I was having a really good look at it underneath and noticed some rust on the body. Looking further I realized that there were clam shells and sand under the sheet metal back near the counterweight. This scared me off but I did a little more research and found out that the dealer was importing machines from the US and that some had been either sunk in a hurricane or used for the cleanup. Glad I didn't get sucked in to buying that one! Funny, the dealer disappeared before too long as well. I guess I wasn't the only one that heard what they were up to...