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Mini excavators: to rent or to buy - a dilemma for small businesses
By Caterpillar and KHL Content Studio | Posted: Jul 30, 2025
Whether you are a small contractor or a sole trader, you will likely reach a point in your business where you have to decide between renting or buying equipment.
For some, there will be no bigger investment than a mini or micro excavator – the go-to machine for many smaller projects, given their transportability and manoeuvrability, and their potential to move earth quickly in areas with limited space.
Sometimes, the decision is an easy one: you have a strong pipeline that should see you employed for the foreseeable future; you have the biggest contract you’ve ever secured. Time to make a purchase.
At other times the business rationale is not so clear, but you have the sense that, over time, the return on investment will justify the decision.
Caterpillar, a company perhaps known more for equipment at the heavier end of the spectrum, offers some of the most advanced mini and micro excavators on the market, and has been honing these machines, with a view to encouraging smaller operators to take the plunge and purchase a compact excavator from its 1.5 to 10 tonne range.
To rent or to buy?
Product expert Rob Godsell has been involved in the development of the compact excavator range, as well as working for a number of years in the aftermarket division of Caterpillar.
He is well placed to appreciate the challenges, thought processes and questions of potential buyers and says the next-gen HEX range of compact machines was developed with these customers in mind.
“It’s a big decision, no matter what the size of business,” he says, “so we try and give potential buyers as many options as possible.
“Many of our dealers will offer everything from straightforward rental, through to rental with an option to buy, to competitive financing deals. We recognise, especially under the current economic conditions, that our customers’ situations vary greatly and we have to provide an option for every circumstance.
“It has to be that way when you’re offering a premium product with the highest level of operator control customisation, comfort and ease of use technology. These features, combined with minimal downtime and extended maintenance intervals offer a lot of benefits for operators and owners – putting us in a really good total cost of ownership position.”
Excavator as tool carrier
Godsell is an advocate of owning your own machine, but he recognises it’s not the right choice for everyone. However, in many circumstances, he believes it can be the best option and not only in the long-term.
“If you have a consistent pipeline and you can see that work will continue, there are certainly benefits to buying a machine,” he says. “For a start, depending on the financing situation, it can actually mean making lower monthly payments than you would for rental.”
But, given that so many compact excavators are now being used as tool carriers, the advantages of owning one can go further.
Godsell says the benefits of having a Next Gen HEX machine include its ability to work efficiently with a wide range of attachments.
Cat’s mini and micro machines offer a surprisingly wide range of attachments, with even the very smallest able to carry a number of digging and grading buckets, as well as hydraulic hammers, augers and compaction tools.
For excavators of 5 tonnes and above, the range of potential attachments grows significantly, to include grapples, shears, compactor plates, flail mowers and tiltrotators with quick-coupling options.
Putting operators in control
Caterpillar – the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturer – is able to translate features from some of its larger machines down the product line. A customer looking at a 5-tonne excavator, for example, will have the potential to incorporate some of the same features seen on 20-plus-tonne machines.
This assistance technology could be hugely beneficial for businesses, helping both less experienced and highly experienced operators be safer and more efficient. For example, excavators of 6 tonnes and above come with a factory-fitted fully integrated ease of use system that allow operators to create 2D E-fences, which helps operators avoid overhead obstacles such as powerlines, ceilings, or tree branches.
There’s also the Indicate feature, which gives operators both a visual and audio alert, indicating where the tip of the bucket is in relation to either a predefined grade or to where the machine is physically sitting.
As Caterpillar’s Rob Godsell says, “If you’re digging or lifting in a particularly tight space, or if there’s traffic moving nearby, it can be beneficial to slow the machine down, to give more precision – especially if the operator is not highly skilled.
“This is also very useful when digging around utilities, or when you’re not completely sure what’s in the ground around the machine.”
Ease-of-use built in
Cat minis and micros also have a joystick steering feature – enabled or disabled at the push of a button – allowing the operator to control travel movements via the more ergonomic machine implement joysticks.
Another feature is the ability to tilt the cab – a benefit to owners who intend to keep a machine for 10 years or more.
Godsell says, “Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t need to access components beneath the cab, because they are extremely durable and reliable, but it’s a great feature for those seeking long-term use of a machine.
“It’s peace of mind, knowing you’ve got a machine that you know you can work on easily yourself.”
If you’re scratching your head at this point, wondering why all these advanced features are required on minis and micros, Godsell says it simply comes down to individual operator preference.
“You have early adopters of technology, who are happy to jump on and spend a bit of time figuring out the functionality of the features. Once that’s done, it becomes like a smartphone – you just couldn’t get by without it.
“I advise everyone to try the system – it’s extremely intuitive to use and has the capacity to make machine operations easier and more efficient. You should just spend a few moments to get comfortable with the control options and see how they fit with what you plan to do with the machine.
“At its most basic level, I think the benefits of the technology increase as an operator spends more time using the same machine. Also, it’s designed in such a way that it doesn’t add significantly to the initial cost.”
Covering the basics
The current focus for Caterpillar is on getting more of its systems in use by customers, so they can learn more about what works best and which features add most value.
A Cat 302.7 can be quickly and simply loaded onto a small trailer for rapid transportation to the next job
Godsell insists, however, that the technology built into the Cat Next-Gen machines won’t detract from the standard operation of the machine, for those operators who don’t want to use it.
“You can always just jump in and operate it without utilising these features,” he says. “But fewer operators are doing that – they want to understand the full capabilities of the excavator, especially if they recognise that it’s going to make their day that little bit easier, less stressful and less tiring. And they’ll get more work done.”
From a straightforward productivity perspective, Godsell maintains that a Cat machine, built to the highest standards, with quality components, can offer customers maximum uptime and industry-leading service and maintenance intervals.
He believes it’s this security that differentiates Cat minis and micros from the competition.
“We’ve significantly improved our maintenance intervals versus the previous line of machines,” he says, largely due to the work we’ve been doing on filter technology.”
As an example of how much the maintenance intervals have been increased, he says, “A mini or micro excavator tends to be running for up to 500 hours a year, in which case, you could get a good 5 or 6 years out of the hydraulic oil, which now has a 3,000-hour change interval.
Small machines with big features
The latest Cat excavators also boast excellent lift capacity, which means, for a given size of machine, you can generally lift the heaviest and broadest range of work tools, maximizing versatility and making the machines useful on the broadest range of projects.” And given that operators could potentially be spending their entire shift in an excavator, it’s important to note that air conditioning is offered as an option across all sizes of machines in the Next Gen range, which also boasts an ultra-comfortable operator station. As Godsell concludes, “Even the 1.5 tonne machines are built to be as comfortable as possible for operators. “You have to be happy to jump in and spend the day there, because it’s your workplace – it has to be comfortable enough to be your office.”
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