USED MACHINERY: Fendt 716 and 818 tractors: No surprises here. Second-hand Fendt 700 Vario and 800 Vario tractors command premium prices. Take the 716 as an example. With perhaps 6,500 hours plus on the clock and approaching its seventh birthday, a 716 Vario may well be advertised at £26,000, the same model with a decent warranty weighing in at around a hefty £30,000. Is this excessive? Or does the Fendt buyer really get more for his used tractor money? James de Havilland reports
Before spluttering at the seemingly exorbitant used Fendt 700 Vario and 800 Vario values, consider the brand’s current new retail prices. For 2007, the recently launched Tier III 150hp Fendt 716 sits at around £89,000, whereas the new rangetopping 165hp Fendt 718 carries a £92,000 price on its head. The essentially similar but now 170hp (pre-2007 models 180hp) 818 Vario shares pretty much the same mechanicals as a 716/718 and lists at a cool £96,753.
Though there may well be some wriggle room on these new retail figures, Fendt dealers are unlikely to offer fat discounts; the reality is that these tractors tend to be sold at a price closer to their recommended list figure than much of the new competition. Such a pricing policy clearly frustrates hagglers, but then the one key pay-off is the marque’s strong residual values. This, in turn, helps to explain why a used Fendt can have a high sticker price, even when the tractor shows what we in the UK consider to be scarily high hours on the clock.
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