Treadmill Price Guide
We often get asked “why is that treadmill so expensive”?
Well firstly, obviously, the more you pay, the more features you get. Refer to our article Treadmill Buyer’s Guide for more on this. But secondly, it’s all about “build quality”. My favourite analogy is cars. We’ve all seen the ads on TV – “Nissan Pulsar – power windows, ABS brakes, MP3 player, etc. etc. – all for $19,990”. So many features that the Sydney Harbour Bridge has trouble staying up when you drive over it (or so the Ad would have you think!).
So why would anyone buy a Mercedes Benz? If you listed off the features of both brands on a piece of paper, you wouldn’t find many headings where Mercedes had something that Nissan didn’t.
But people every day pay $70,000 for that Mercedes, when you could “get all those features in a Nissan”. And it’s all because of “build quality”.
People know that the doors will close more solidly (my favourite acid test in cars!). The engine will run for longer without issue. You’re going to be safer in a crash. And they’re prepared to pay more for that. So too with all fitness equipment.
Indeed, 2-3 years ago York Fitness brought out 2 ranges – their standard range, and their Platinum range (both ranges are finished now, BTW – before you rush out to buy one!).
In some of the items, the features were the same, but the price was 20% more, and us fitness-industry-folk said “eh?!”.
Well it all came down to the quality of the components. York had gone out of their way to seek out the best component factories. The type of factories that made the circuit-boards for Mercedes Cars, would supply the circuit boards for their Platinum treadmills. The very best rollers were sourced to guide the treadmill mat on each revolution. CE European Safety Standards were achieved.
Lots of little things that were hard to list on a piece of paper, but certainly improved the quality and the life of the treadmill.
The big fitness brands continue that differentiation today. When you go onto that auction site, and find someone selling a 20kph, 5HP treadmill for but the York equivalent costs $1599, make no mistake, they are not the same. One will be made in a low-cost factory in China, the other in a US-Standards factory in Taiwan.
One with the cheapest possible grade of components, and the other with high-quality components It’s why Apple’s $200 iPod outsells that MP3 player you buy at Aldi for $19.99. We don’t want to spend half our life fumbling around with the “Chenglish” controls and standing in the warranty line waiting for it to be fixed!
But I digress. The answer to "how much should I spend" is really up to you. Read through all the specs (see our guide), and determine which suit you best. If it was me, I'd spend about A$1500. Normally that price gets you heaps of features, but not too much. If you’ve got a similar story of quality over price, we’d love to hear it below.