Hours or kilometres
The primary measure on earthmoving plant, tractors and vehicles. Two machines of the same age with a large gap between their meters are different assets.
Guide
New against used, costed properly.
A used machine is cheaper to buy and more expensive to finance, and whether it is cheaper overall depends on numbers most buyers do not put beside each other.
MS
Matt Stiles Editor
Published 7 September 2026 Last reviewed 7 September 2026 Read time 10 min
The short version
The trade in four lines.
- Age caps are about the end of the term. A lender asks how old the machine will be when the facility ends, not how old it is today. That single rule explains most of what follows.
- A shorter term raises the weekly figure. A cheaper machine on a three-year term can cost more each week than a dearer one on five, which is the comparison that decides affordability.
- Deposits offset part of the saving. Where a used machine attracts a 20% deposit and a new one attracts none, a meaningful share of the price difference is required as cash on day one.
- Condition beats age on most equipment. Hours, service history and, on earthmoving plant, undercarriage wear tell a lender more than the build year does.
The comparison
The same capability, new and used.
Illustrative comparison on stated assumptions, using indicative rates and terms typical of each. Figures come from the calculator on this page and are not quotes.
| New machine | Four-year-old machine | Nine-year-old machine | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | $120,000 | $78,000 | $46,000 |
| Typical term available | 60 months | 48 months | 30 months |
| Deposit commonly sought | Nil | 10% | 25% |
| Cash needed on day one | $0 | $7,800 | $11,500 |
| Amount financed | $120,000 | $70,200 | $34,500 |
| Indicative rate | 9% | 11% | 14% |
| Indicative weekly | ~$573 | ~$418 | ~$316 |
| Indicative total interest | ~$29,000 | ~$16,100 | ~$6,600 |
Illustrative comparison of the same capability at three ages. Indicative only, and not an offer of credit.
Reading that table
What it does and does not show.
The weekly figures fall as the machine gets older, which is the result most buyers expect and is the reason used machines are bought. What the table also shows is that the fall is much smaller than the price difference suggests. The nine-year-old machine costs 62% less to buy and 45% less each week, because the shorter term claws back a large part of the saving.
The deposit line is the one most often left out. Buying the older machine requires $11,500 of cash on the day against nothing on the new one, and that is capital the business no longer has for anything else. On a business where working capital is the constraint rather than the weekly cost, that single line can reverse the decision.
What the table cannot show is the running cost, and that is where the real risk in a used purchase sits. A nine-year-old machine is more likely to need unplanned work, and unplanned work on plant means downtime as well as a bill. Neither appears in a finance comparison, and both are the reason experienced buyers weight service history so heavily.
What is assessed
How lenders read a used machine.
Age is the crude measure. These are what actually move a valuation, and they vary by class of equipment more than most buyers expect.
Service history
Documented servicing is worth real money at valuation, particularly on machines where a major component failure is expensive. Absence of records is treated as a risk rather than as neutral.
Wear on the expensive parts
Undercarriage on tracked plant, print heads on wide-format equipment, transmission and hydraulics on tractors. These are assessed separately from overall condition.
Certification status
On vehicles and trailers, a machine out of certification is worth materially less because the buyer inherits the cost of restoring it.
Local service support
Equipment with no New Zealand service agent is harder to keep running and harder to sell, and lenders discount it accordingly.
A clean register search
A used machine carrying a registered security interest is not a machine the buyer can safely own, which is why the search precedes the valuation.
Beyond the finance
What else differs between new and used.
The finance comparison is only part of the decision. These are the differences that show up after the machine arrives.
| Feature | New | Near-new, 1 to 4 years | Used, 5 to 8 years | Older, 9 years and up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warranty | Full manufacturer | Balance or dealer warranty | Rarely | None |
| Unplanned downtime risk | Lowest | Low | Moderate | Highest |
| Finance term available | Longest | Long | Shorter | Shortest |
| Deposit | Often nil | Often nil | Commonly sought | Usually substantial |
| Depreciation in year one | Steepest | Moderate | Slower | Slowest |
| Fits when | Uptime is critical | Value matters and risk does not | Cash is the constraint | The machine is a spare or light-use |
Near-new is where most experienced buyers land, because the steepest depreciation has already happened while warranty, service history and long finance terms are all still available.
Worked scenarios
Three buyers, three right answers.
Illustrative scenarios on stated assumptions. The point is that the same comparison produces different answers depending on what constrains the business.
Tight cash flow, adequate deposit available
The business constrained by weekly cost
A business whose constraint is the weekly figure and which has cash available for a deposit is the clearest case for a used machine. The lower weekly cost is the binding benefit and the deposit is affordable.
The risk it accepts in exchange is unplanned downtime, which is best managed by weighting the purchase toward documented service history rather than toward the lowest price.
Indicative figures
- Constraint
- Weekly cost
- Deposit available
- Yes
- Sensible choice
- Used, well documented
- Risk accepted
- Downtime
Adequate revenue, no capital available
The business constrained by cash
A business with revenue to service a facility but no cash for a deposit is frequently better off with a newer machine, because nil-deposit terms are available and the older machine’s deposit is the barrier.
The weekly figure is higher, which is the price of not having capital. In this scenario the comparison the business is actually making is not new against used, it is which machine can be bought at all.
Indicative figures
- Constraint
- Capital
- Deposit available
- No
- Sensible choice
- Newer, nil deposit
- Cost of that
- Higher weekly figure
Single machine, no backup capacity
The business where downtime is the risk
A shop with one machine and no alternative capacity carries the whole business on that machine working. A failure is not a repair bill, it is a stopped business.
In this scenario the warranty and the reliability of a new or near-new machine are worth more than the price difference, and the used option is the more expensive one once the downtime risk is priced honestly rather than assumed away.
Indicative figures
- Constraint
- Uptime
- Backup capacity
- None
- Sensible choice
- New or near-new
- Reason
- Downtime costs more than the gap
The line nobody compares
What the price gap is actually buying.
The finance comparison is the easy half and it is not where used purchases go wrong. What separates a good used buy from a bad one is the running cost across the term, and it is invisible on the day because it has not happened yet.
Three things sit inside it. The first is scheduled maintenance, which rises with age on every class of equipment and is entirely predictable if the service intervals are known. The second is the wear items due within the term, which is where used purchases most often surprise: undercarriage on a tracked machine, tyres on a truck, a print head on wide-format equipment, a battery on an electric forklift. Each of those is a known cost with a known remaining life, and each is a question a seller can answer.
The third is unplanned failure, and it is the one that cannot be budgeted precisely. What can be done is to size it against the business rather than against the machine. A shop with a second machine treats a failure as an inconvenience. A shop with one machine treats it as a stopped business, and the honest price of a used purchase there includes whatever that week costs.
A used machine bought after those three have been priced is frequently an excellent purchase. A used machine bought because the sticker was lower is a coin toss with the odds hidden, and the difference between the two is a conversation with the seller that takes half an hour.
Before committing
Five questions that price a used machine properly.
None of these require an expert to ask, and the answers change the comparison more than a percentage point of rate does.
01
What is due within the term
Which scheduled services and which wear items will fall inside the finance term, and what each costs. On older equipment this is frequently a meaningful fraction of the purchase price.
02
What has already been replaced
A machine with recent major work is worth more than its age suggests, and a machine with none at high hours is carrying that work ahead of it. The invoices are the evidence.
03
Who has serviced it
A franchise dealer, an independent workshop with records, or nobody in particular. All three are common and they are not equivalent when a lender or a future buyer values the machine.
04
What parts availability looks like
A make with a New Zealand agent and stocked parts is a different proposition from an orphan import where a component means a wait and a freight bill.
05
What a failure would cost this business
Not what the repair costs. What a week of stopped work costs, which is specific to the business and is the number that decides how much reliability is worth paying for.
Test the maths
Compare two machines properly.
Running the used machine at its shorter term and higher rate, then the new one at its longer term and lower rate, is the comparison the price tags do not show. Indicative only, and not a quote or offer of credit.
Indicative repayment
Weekly
$537/week
$2,325 /month $13,700 total interest
$70,000
$5,000 $500,000
3 years
6 months 5 years
12.00% p.a.
8% (secured) 30% (unsecured)
Indicative only. Not a quote or offer of credit. Actual rates, fees, and repayments depend on the business profile and the lender's decision.
Sending to Prospa
Your $70,000 scenario
3 years at 12.00% . Prospa will ask a few quick questions, then provide a firm quote and funding if eligible.
Redirecting…
The edge case
When a machine is too old for asset finance.
Above a certain age, which varies by class and by lender, asset finance simply stops being offered. That threshold is not a judgement about whether the machine works. It is a judgement about whether there is enough resale value left at the end of a term to be worth securing against, and on a fifteen-year-old machine with a three-year term there frequently is not.
The funding does not disappear at that point, and it changes shape. An unsecured business facility will commonly fund the same purchase, assessed on the business alone, at unsecured pricing and over a shorter term. That is a real step up in cost, and it is the honest consequence of buying a machine nobody will lend against.
Which means the cheapest machine on the market is frequently not the cheapest purchase, and the reason is visible before the purchase rather than after. Establishing what finance is available on a specific machine before agreeing a price is a short conversation that occasionally changes which machine is bought.
Method
How this guide was written.
The comparison table uses indicative rates and terms typical of each age band in the New Zealand market rather than quotes from any lender, and the figures come from the calculator on this page. They are illustrative and are intended to show the shape of the trade rather than to predict what any particular business would be offered.
The assessment factors are drawn from what New Zealand lenders commonly request and examine on used equipment applications. Where a class of equipment has its own dominant measure, such as undercarriage wear on tracked plant or print head hours on wide-format equipment, that appears on the relevant machine page rather than here.
References
Sources
- Personal Property Securities Register
The register searched before any used equipment purchase.
- NZTA, certificate of fitness
The published source for the certification status referred to in the assessment factors.
- Inland Revenue depreciation rate finder
The published source for the depreciation treatment referred to in the comparison.
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand, statistics
Context for the indicative rate bands used in the comparison table.
- Consumer NZ
Independent New Zealand consumer research, referenced for general purchase-comparison principles.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Why do lenders cap terms by age?
Because the term a lender will run is set by the machine’s residual value at the end of it rather than by its value today. A nine-year-old machine on a five-year term would be fourteen years old when the facility ends, and the resale value at that point is what the lender is relying on if things go wrong.
Is a used machine actually cheaper overall?
Sometimes and not always. The purchase price falls faster than the weekly cost, because the shorter term claws back part of the saving, and a deposit takes back more of it in cash on day one. Whether it is cheaper overall depends on which constraint the business is actually managing.
What is the best age to buy at?
Near-new, roughly one to four years, is where many experienced buyers land, because the steepest depreciation has already happened while warranty balance, documented service history and long finance terms are usually all still available. That is a general observation rather than a rule, and it varies by class of equipment.
Do hours matter more than age?
On most powered equipment, yes. Two machines built in the same year with a large gap between their hour meters are different assets, and lenders price them differently. On trailers and simpler equipment the calendar age matters more, because there is less to wear out.
How much does service history affect a valuation?
Materially, particularly on machines where a major component failure is expensive. Documented servicing is worth real money at valuation and its absence is treated as a risk rather than as neutral, because a lender cannot tell whether the machine has been maintained or merely used.
Why are deposits sought on older machines?
Because the gap between what a machine is worth and what it would realise under pressure is wider on older equipment, and widens faster. A deposit reduces the lender’s exposure to that gap, which is why it appears as the age rises even where the borrower is unchanged.
Can very old equipment be financed at all?
Sometimes, on a short term with a substantial deposit, and frequently not as asset finance at all. Where a lender declines, the funding commonly moves to an unsecured business facility priced as unsecured lending, which is a real step up in rate and is worth knowing before assuming a cheap machine will attract cheap finance.
Does a warranty change the finance?
Not directly, and it changes the risk the business is carrying. A machine under warranty transfers the cost of a major failure to the manufacturer for a period, which matters most in a business with no backup capacity. Lenders do not price warranty; buyers should.
What should be checked before buying used?
A search of the Personal Property Securities Register against the serial or VIN number, an independent inspection on higher-value plant, service records, certification status on vehicles and trailers, and whether a New Zealand service agent supports the make. All of those are inexpensive relative to the purchase and expensive to discover afterwards.
Does an import cost less overall?
The purchase price is frequently lower and the finance is frequently worse. Absence of local service support reduces what a lender believes it could recover, which shortens terms and increases deposits, and it also raises the practical cost of keeping the machine running. Both belong in the comparison.
How is the GST treated differently on a used machine?
It is not, where the seller is GST registered and the structure is the same. Under a hire purchase a GST-registered business is generally able to claim the GST on the purchase price in the return covering the period the agreement begins, subject to the accountant’s confirmation. A private sale from a non-registered seller is a different question that the accountant is the right person to settle.
What happens when a machine is too old for asset finance?
The funding moves rather than disappearing. An unsecured business facility will commonly fund the same purchase, assessed on the business alone, at unsecured pricing and over a shorter term. That is a real step up in cost, which is why establishing what finance is available on a specific machine before agreeing a price occasionally changes which machine gets bought.
Does a lender care where a used machine came from?
It affects the security assessment rather than the decision. A dealer purchase with clear title and a prepared machine is simpler to write than a private sale requiring a payout arrangement at settlement, and an import with no New Zealand service agent is harder again. All three are financed routinely, on different terms.
Is a trade-in worth more than a private sale?
Usually less in headline terms and simpler in practice, and where finance is still owing on the outgoing machine a dealer trade handles the settlement as part of the transaction. A private sale commonly realises more and leaves the seller to settle the existing facility themselves before title can transfer.
Related
Keep reading
PPSR checks on used plant
The search that precedes every used purchase.
Read onDealer against private sale
How the purchase route changes the paperwork and the risk.
Read onWhat equipment lenders assess
The full picture behind an application, not just the machine.
Read onHow equipment finance works in NZ
The foundation this guide assumes.
Read onEquipment finance by machine
Age and hour thresholds for eleven specific machine classes.
Read on