" And yeah, it could be a better bargain to buy a lionchief engine used than this new, kind of like back in the day buying a Yugo new or a used Toyota or the like, no comparison."
I believe the point is that new LionChief locos for separate sale are no more expensive than this Menards loco. Charles Ro has some for about $10 more than the Menards diesel if I recall correctly. So the comparison is valid in that sense. No need to go used if you don't want to for similar price and features. But there are only a few types of locos and road names, so there's probably room in the marketplace for both Lionel LionChief and Menards.