My House Came With a 20 Kilo "Planta",Powered By a Detroit Diesel Motor.
Even has it's own little "house"!It is VERY old,but it is a "workhorse"! It has no generator,so I have a trickle chatger hooked to the battery.It "had" a "Swegromatic" starter.That means that when we wanted it to start,I sent my "Swegro",(father-in-law) out to the little house to hit the start button!Same when it came time to shut it down.As you can imagine,this was very inconvenient,
and more costly,as I would often wait till later,to ask him to go turn it off when it was 3 or 4 am.
I was lucky that the mechanic in charge of all the "Huge" plantas at the "Plaza de Salud",(at least 8 !)where I work,was trained by Santo Domingo Motors on Detroit Diesel motors.He maintains my planta,and does a great job.He wired a "Switch" in my master bath,so I can turn the "planta" on and off at will.I don't want an automatic transfer switch,because I use my 3,5 K inverter system for most use,and only use the planta if we want "220" for the "Air-conditioners",washing,ironing,or to charge the inverter batteries when there is no street power for an extended time.
I guess my point is that the most important part of your "Planta",is availability of parts.service under warrentee,and most important,a really good mechanic for the long haul!
We,at the "Plaza",and I for my home,purchase parts from "San Miguel",they are very good,and have lots of parts in-stock.