Shoot,, ever if a person bought a brand new piece of equipment it to is just a ticking timebomb.  Look at all the problems with electronics, rear ends, transmissions, engines on equipment some still on warrantee.  Granted you may have a ghost of a chance getting warrantee work done. But,, look at what happened with the poster (name fails at the moment)  who paid $1000  to have exaust gaskets replaced on his tractor which was only 1 month past warrantee, at the time the tractor was getting a new rearend put in cause the tractor was assembled wrong at the factory when it was built.

Look at all the problems with the new or newer combines,, they are ticking timebombs too.  When those "timebomb" combines get traded in for new combines,, they won't be worth very much.  Granted they may be good machines,, but they're already carrying the stigma as just 'fair to poor' machines.  Rear axles snapping in 1/2, front axles doing the same.  So, there's 2 kinds of combines,, those whose axles have broke in 1/2 and those which hasn't yet.

All I'm pointing out is age of a machine, color, is a little pointless. They ALL are ticking timebombs.  The only difference is whether a guy has the knowledge/place/tools/time to fix the machine himself. OR,, have to pay $$$/hour to have a mechanic repair the machine.

We all know there are "lemons" in every color, and model, and folks tell each other to run don't walk away from that machine. Age, amount of repairs done, is all pointless,, they're branded as junk and aren't worth diddly.

The only real variable it how the previous owner treated the equipment when he owned it.

Point is  Every machine is going to breakdown, just a matter of when.

Which is a better machine?  Jd 4450 that runs like a champ, or a 8XXX machine that's puked an engine-transmission-rearend ??  Everyone has to answer that question for themselves.