BAM

News of the day is Ford affiliate buys Chinese heavy truck maker....

And where was this announced?? Keep in mind that the Cummins and the new Powerstroke are both 6.7L...................

After viewing the SX at the PRI show last week I was most impressed with the amount of chassis that was cut out for weight savings... And the craftsmanship was top notch also, I'm assuming Watson Engineering did the work.

Did the engines in question have the gaseous prep that gives you the more robust valves?

Dude, Relax..... We are a Roush and Landirenzo dealer, I understand the value to the right user...I was just telling you how my customers look at alternative fuels.. Buy the way the F150 bi fuel truck has a "mixing valve" that dealer cost is $1977.00, we have them in stock and keep them in the safe.....

12k upfront cost, 0 resale value and range anxiety are the big issues with small fleets....

We referred to the Cuautitlán built trucks as "bridge units".. You are indeed correct they were very very limited spec, 2 engine horsepower, 2 transmissions, 6 wheelbases... Our Blue Diamond truck is a little better than that....... The only thing holding back more options is the truck builder, not Ford... Funny note about Cuautitlan is thier F250 build quality back in the day was better than KTP....

The LP/CNG thing ebbs and flows with grant money... When the grant $$ dries up nobody converts except major fleets. The math does not add up without it.......

We are saying the same thing, Ford is interested in retail or fleetail, you are a fleet user.... I disagree with your thought of Ford not building class 6-7 trucks, 4 other OEM's will build "custom" trucks at "custom" prices. Ford offers something that no one else does, a more generic spec that offers a truck at a(way) lower transaction price than the competition. Ford realized that nobody makes money selling to fleets, not the mfg or the dealer... I don't miss dealing with class 8 fleets at all after the loss of Sterling, they would whine about a leaking washer fluid bottle at 750,000 miles..... Really!!

Actually Ford has a program in place to educate commercial truck salespeople and it is tied into incentives, after you pass a series of tests you become a Commercial Account Manager or CAM. The dealership and salesperson leave a pretty good chunk of change on the table if they decide not to be "CAM certified".. In our body company division we sometimes are forced to supply non Ford chassis for our PalPro72 mechanics trucks, so I have some first hand experience in dealing with truck salespeople. Just like anything else there are good ones and bad ones.. I will say that I cringe every time I have to buy a Freightliner prouduct...... And I have to go 4 states away to buy a Ram 5500 to find someone that knows what they are talking about........ In my racing career I have raced in one pro race, does that make me a professional race car driver?? Mark, Thanks for the props on my dealership... the handsome guy leaning against the PalPro 43 on the website you posted is yours truly.. IMO Ford seems to be more concerned with retail or "fleetail" business than major fleets. Retail units now get built faster than fleet units, retail pricing is as strong as or sometimes stronger than fleet/ muni programs. Let's just say that this way fits really well into our business model...... On another note we had a pretty good shot in the arm for our Isuzu business when Hino decided to delay (means never in Japan) the delivery of thier new LCF last week..........

I have a dedicated commercial truck rep that calls on me in person.....

FWIW Navistar will be using the small block GM V8 gas for the TerraStar..

Spinoff does not mean sell... The reason the C7 is still on the website is because there are still some in dealer inventory and in Ford's (small) F6/750 chassis pool.

The 6.4 does not have to come back to the dealer for the regen like the 6.7 does.

The market has changed a lot in the last two years: 1) GM has abandoned the class 6 gas market. 2) Landed prices of 2010 EPA class 6 diesel trucks are ridiculous. 3) Fuel mileage advantage of diesel not nearly as great as it used to be. 4) Cost of ownership in low to mid mileage usage really swings toward gas. 5) price of diesel fuel Vs. gas. 6) Having to deal with the regen process, ( the Dodge Cummins is by far the worst, I have first hand experience because we sold a lot of the Sterling Bullet chassis and they have to be driven to go into regen, they will not do a stationary regen. If you application does not allow the truck to be driven at highway speeds you are fuct. The dealer has to do the regen and it is not covered under warranty). 7) Sooner or later the Blue Diamond partnership will be over. 8) It reminds me of when Ford said that they will never build another gas powered ambulance, it took a while but they are building them now...

I hear good things about the 6/750, its here to stay. Hearing strong rumors from Ford about gas engines for the F650.

Dodge had some pent up orders for the 4/5500, and the pickens are pretty slim for 4/550 dealer inventory lately because of the build out of 2010 SD. I'm sure Dodge is twisting this into something it is not, but just be patient the pendulum will swing back our way.

We already got one and delivered it. The 6.2L is an awesome motor! Retail units are being built, did you do the verification process when you ordered yours? It all has to do with whether or not your dealer has allocation for a Raptor, if he does not have allocation it does not matter how it is ordered..... My second retail order is due in the first week of May and my next stock one is scheduled for the middle of June.

The dealer memo did not say anything about not releasing to 6.7.

Ford gave the OK to ship today, you should start seeing some soon.

The big reason that the cab on the newer trucks sit higher is because of the additional room needed for EPA stuff, mainly the bigger radiator. I would assume that Navistar really had to jack their cab up because of not using urea to meet 2010 EPA. All of that SCR crap really creates heat.... According to our Cummins rep. the new 13L Maxx Force diesel has 11cooling elements on the engine!!

Hino is going the other way in a big hurry. A very large part of their gains in the market were due to TFS “buying” the business, a practice that has been stopped after the big shake-up there. TFS has repos everywhere, it’s kind of like Freightliner was back in the Hebe days. The economies of scale really hurt the smaller players in the market when it comes to the new emission standards that the EPA has imposed. The math is pretty simple, the more units that you have to spread the development cost of the EPA mandates and certifications over, the less the cost is per unit. Smaller players trying to compete in big markets have a very hard time being competitive for this reason. As far as GM and the class 4-5 market goes they are done forever. They told their dealers back in 2007 that they would not be building a class 4 or larger truck in 2010; they allocated zero dollars for the 2010 emissions. They said they had 4 options, have Isuzu build it for them, find someone else to build it for them, sell it to someone else, or shut it down. GM has been talking about a “black hole” truck for many years; this is a truck that would fit between the 3500 chassis and the C4500. At this point GM has way bigger fish to fry than getting back into a 30k unit a year total market. Isuzu has already announced the gas chassis is coming back, along with a new 12k GVW NPR chassis with a small fuel efficient diesel engine that is different than the one that will come in the NPRHD-NQR-NRR chassis. They also announced a brand new product that can best be described as a mini walk in or bread truck. The only question at this point is what will replace the 855 cab if anything. The class 6-7 cabover market has been shrinking in size for many years mainly due to the better steering geometry of conventional trucks and economies of scale. Mitsu has also walked away from this and has no plans to return. Many people close to the class 6-8 market still think that Sterling is not the last to go…….