Used commercial mowers are a different conversation to used cars. The wear is in places you can’t see from the driver’s seat — gearbox seals, hydraulic lines, deck spindles, blade-tip play that turns into a £3,000 repair within two seasons. Most resellers let you discover it after the cheque clears.

We wrote this report so you don’t have to.

What’s in it

Six pages. Plain English. Engineering-team-written, not marketing-written.

• The 47-point inspection list we run on every Approved Used machine before it leaves Leicester. Frame, hydraulics, drive system, deck, controls, electrics — what we test, what we measure, and what fails it.
• The five things that destroy resale value. If a machine has any of them, walk. We’ve seen all of them in the trade.
• What to ask the seller before you book a viewing. The questions that separate honest sellers from repainted-and-flogged.
• What “service history” actually means. Most invoices are oil-and-filter only. Here’s how to read one properly.
• The hour-meter rule. Why a 2,500-hour Kubota Z-turn might be a better buy than a 600-hour example.

If you’ve never bought a commercial mower used, this saves you a five-figure mistake. If you’ve bought five, it saves you the next one.

Get the report

Why we share it

Two reasons.

The first is selfish: we’d rather lose a sale than sell you the wrong machine. Buyers who know what they’re looking at make better long-term customers, refer their groundskeeper friends, and stop ringing us at 8pm because they didn’t realise the spindle bearings were already gone when they paid.

The second isn’t selfish: most of the trade is fine. There are honest dealers, honest auctioneers, honest private sellers. But “most” leaves a margin, and that margin costs commercial buyers tens of thousands of pounds a year. A buyer with a checklist is a buyer who can’t be fooled.

Read it before you view anything. Bring it with you on the day.