New vs Used Excavators: What You Actually Save
New vs used excavator prices by size, NZ and Australia, from real dealer and marketplace listings, and what the price gap actually is.
New vs used excavator prices, by size
The price gap between new and used diggers depends on size. At the smallest end of the New Zealand market, the cheapest new and used machines we found cost exactly the same. Same site, same day. If you're unsure which size you need, our guide to excavator weight and specs explains what each class is built for.
Australia
Machines4U, a large Australian marketplace, showed these new excavator prices in September 2026, filtered to "New" by tonnage class. Every price is "Ex GST", meaning GST has yet to be added.
| Size class | New (Ex GST, AUD) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mini, 1.5 to 3.5 t | $30,900 – $75,900 | Machines4U, mini class |
| 5 to 8 t | $49,990 – $170,000 | Machines4U, 5-tonne class |
| 12 to 15 t | $107,000 – $209,900 | Machines4U, 14-tonne class |
| 18 to 23 t | $139,500 – $250,000 | Machines4U, 20-tonne class |
| 30 t | $80,000 – $275,000 | Machines4U, 21 to 45-tonne class |
Our used excavator price guide covers used prices from the same site. Machines4U has no bracket specifically for 12 to 15-tonne or 30-tonne machines, so those rows use the closest brackets of 14-tonne and 21 to 45-tonne. The $170,000 high in the 5 to 8t row is one outlier. The next-highest new listing was under $85,000.
A second Australian source supports the mini range. Bobcat of Australia's E17 Contractors Kit, dated 1 September 2026, lists a 1.7-tonne machine with three buckets at $33,990 plus GST. It is a package price rather than a bare machine, and sits inside the Machines4U range.
Browse our 12 to 15-tonne excavators or 4 to 10-tonne excavators.
New Zealand
Farm Trader labels each listing "New" or "Used". These were filtered to New in September 2026:
| NZ size class | New asking price (NZD) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 7 t | $12,490 – $92,990 | GST treatment not stated on the card |
Farm Trader's front page showed no New-labelled listings in the 7 to 20t or 20 to 45t classes that day. That only reflects the default-sorted first page. For those classes, these dealer prices came from Kobelco New Zealand's offers page, accessed September 2026. All are "+GST".
| Model (tonnage) | NZ class | Price (+GST) |
|---|---|---|
| Kobelco SK55SRX-7 (5.5t) | 7 to 20t | $99,888, package with A/C cab, tilt coupler and 3 buckets |
| Kobelco SK85MSR-7 (8.5t) | 7 to 20t | $134,888, package with A/C cab and GP bucket |
| Kobelco SK210LC-10 (~21t) | 20 to 45t | $205,000, limited-time offer with factory GP bucket |
We found no public NZ price for a new 30-tonne machine. Kobelco's largest advertised model tops out around 21 tonnes. Cat, Hitachi and Kubota's NZ dealer sites send every model-page enquiry to "request a quote".
What you actually save (or don't)
This compares the cheapest new and used listings on Machines4U in Australia, from the same day:
| Size class | New low (Ex GST) | Used low (Ex GST) | You'd save | As a share of the new price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini, 1.5 to 3.5 t | $30,900 | $12,950 | $17,950 | 58% |
| 5 to 8 t | $49,990 | $26,818 | $23,172 | 46% |
| 12 to 15 t | $107,000 | $55,000 | $52,000 | 49% |
| 30 t | $80,000 | $38,000 | $42,000 | 53% |
Four of the five classes show a 46 to 58% gap at the cheap end. The 18 to 23t class has an 82% gap, with a cheapest used price of $25,000 against $139,500 new. One unusually cheap used listing drives that figure, so don't expect it to be typical.
This is a low-to-low comparison from one day, giving a rough read of asking prices. The cheapest used digger in a class is usually older, rougher or lower specced than the cheapest new one. They are not matching machines.
The New Zealand data doesn't support the same calculation because the new prices come from Kobelco model pages and the used prices from Farm Trader category pages. Combining those samples would give false precision. Farm Trader's cheapest New and Used listings in the 0 to 7t class were both $12,490 on the same site, same day. In the 7 to 20t and 20 to 45t classes, the specific new Kobelco models sit inside the used range. Condition and spec mean a used machine can still cost more than a new one.
Across both markets, new and used ranges overlap heavily, especially for smaller diggers. The main gap sits at the cheap end of the used market.
What buying new gets you
These points vary by brand.
Warranty. Digger King, an Australian budget brand, advertises 12 months parts and labour plus a 36-month parts warranty. Vertu Equipment, the New Zealand SANY distributor, advertises a 5-year, 5,000-hour component warranty on its minis and compacts. Those terms apply to those two dealers. We found no published warranty term for Cat, Hitachi or Kubota that applied across the board. New machines generally carry a manufacturer warranty, but check the term and hours.
Emissions. DEUTZ Australia says Australia has no national standard for off-highway diesel emissions. Engine builders increasingly make one engine for the strictest market they serve, usually EU Stage V or US Tier 4, then sell it elsewhere. That is a general trend from one source rather than a confirmed rule. A new machine's engine meets its maker's current emissions specification; an older used import may not.
Biosecurity, already done. A new machine from a dealer's stock has already passed MPI or biosecurity checks and compliance as part of the dealer's import process. For a used machine imported specifically for you, that step forms part of your purchase. Our guide to MPI biosecurity cleaning explains the process.
What buying used gets you
We found no published lead time for a new machine in NZ or Australia. Each dealer page either gives a price without a delivery estimate or sends you to a quote request. A used machine is already built and sitting somewhere, which matters even when nobody publishes a lead time.
Every machine we list is under 6,000 hours, with most between 2,000 and 5,000. Each is inspected and photographed before shipping, then signed off by a qualified engineer. Read how many hours is too many on a used excavator for more on hours, or browse our Cat excavators and Hitachi excavators.
Depreciation, for the GST-registered buyer
For a business asset, book depreciation forms part of the cost, new or used.
In New Zealand, Inland Revenue's IR265 general depreciation rates give excavators a 15.5-year estimated useful life, a 13% diminishing value rate and an 8.5% straight-line rate (IR265, August 2024 edition).
In Australia, the ATO's effective life ruling gives hydraulic excavators a 10-year effective life, a 20% diminishing value rate and a 10% prime cost rate. It applies from 1 July 2002 (TR 2022/1, reproduced by depreciationrates.net.au).
The machines are the same; the tax systems use different figures for the asset class. Check with your accountant about your purchase.
Every machine we list shows its asking price and GST treatment, so you can see both before enquiring. Browse what's currently listed.