VICTORIA, BC - As the Volvo equipment dealer serving Vancouver Island, off the coast of British Columbia, Greg Eaton of Great West Equipment, knows what customers look for when they're out to buy large construction machines. As the area's dealer for Champion Motor Graders, Greg has learned that experienced customers tend to look for the same things in their small machines, too.

In some quarters, equipment buyers will lower their expectations when it comes to compact equipment. In the long run, though, fleet managers need quality, dependability and performance in their small machines just as much as they do with the full-size counterparts.

As Greg reports, "We have a couple of big paving outfits in the city of Victoria who have purchased several Champion C80 machines." One of them is Island Asphalt, where Equipment Manager Fred McMurray, has a Champion Grader running alongside a fleet of seven large graders. "Fred says they run so well," Greg recalls, "that his operators don't even to get into a big grader anymore!"

When Fred is asked why he brought Champion Graders into his business, he focuses on quality, not cost. "I liked the quality of workmanship," he says. "We all like the looks, the power and versatility as well as the overall quality."

Island Asphalt has been operating in the Victoria area for over 40 years. One of the largest paving companies in the area, the Island Asphalt fleet is the basis for an active equipment rental business as well as asphalt contracting. The company operates two asphalt plants including an in-house testing lab along with its general contracting, surface milling and aggregates processing activities. The heart of the enterprise, though, is the paving business, ranging from airport runways to tennis courts, along with traditional road work and parking lots.