7Mary3

That may indeed be true, but I think there is an issue with the roofs in question. Of course roof strength does not seem to be the only factor in many of these accidents.

I am not so sure Ford needs to compete in every class of truck to be successful in commercial vehicle sales. Sales of the Transit (primarily a commercial vehicle) alone are enough to make Ford a commercial vehicle leader, not to mention whatever percentage of F Series sales go to fleets. No one would say DTNA (Freightliner) as anything but a successful commercial vehicle manufacturer, and they offer nothing below class 6. Same for Volvo and PACCAR. The fleet I work for has not bought a new class 6/7 Ford for over 10 years. The reason we stopped buying them had nothing to do with our faith in Ford not supporting the product, it's just we found a better alternative in Freightliner for our specific needs. We have looked at the F-650 a few times since for certain applications, so the truck is still being considered. In those 10 years however, we have bought many F-250's, F-550's, and Transits. From what I understand (and someone please enlighten me if they have more sccurate information) Ford was very close to dropping the 650 and 750 when the 'Blue Diamond' joint venture with International came to an end, but a few Ford commercial vehicle dealers convinced Ford to stay in the class 6/7 market. Supposedly there wasn't much of a business case for the trucks, but by bringing their manufacture back in house, offering only Ford proprietary engines and transmissions, limiting options, and using old parts (cab), they might break even or make a small profit. I don't know at what point these 'heavy trucks' as Ford calls them are profitable but with the sales of the vehicles falling to below 800 uints/month one has to wonder. Nonetheless I believe the trucks are safe until the next UAW contract. Another point to consider is the Avon Lake plant, there were plans to build EV's there but that's all on hold. No way would Ford consider building the 650/750 in Mexico now with the tariffs.

Do they really have a big void in commercial vehicle offerings? Maybe a few small holes yes.

All the more reason!

Unfortunately it's bound to have an effect on F series production.

Word to the wise- I think I would stay out of that bar. Many of Ford's competitors were also sourcing aluminum sheet out of that plant.

https://logisticsviewpoints.com/2025/10/07/major-fire-at-key-aluminum-plant-hits-fords-f-150-production/

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2025/09/chevy-lcf-6500-and-7500-may-soon-offer-a-gasoline-engine/

Isuzu is a geat little truck. Overall cost-of-ownership is low. Only real issue is they ride a bit rough being a cabover.

Keep in mind Hino went nearly 2 years without selling any new trucks in the U.S. due to their emissions scandal. They are back to selling new trucks with compliant Cummins diesels. However, it's anyone's guess how much longer Hino will remain in North America, as they are in the process of being spun off by Toyota and aquired by Daimler Truck.

I don't think so. Let's assume I was a buyer for a fleet that purchased Ford trucks from F-150's up through F-750's. If Ford were to drop the 650 and 750 models, I would likely turn to International, Mack, or Freightliner for class 6 and 7 medium duty trucks. Remember those companies don't manufacture class 1 through 5 trucks, so in all likelyhood I would stay with Ford for the lighter models. If the fleet was hell-bent on having one make of truck on the property I guess they could go to Chevy, but their biggest medium duty conventional is the Silverado 6500 which is the equivalent of the Super Duty F-600. Chevy dealers do sell their version of the Cummins powered Isuzu FTR/FVR as the LCF 6500/7500. That's a very good medium duty truck but it is expensive. Remember Ram does very well and they don't offer anything bigger than the Ram 5500. In fact, Ram usually beats Ford in class 4 and 5 commercial truck sales. My understanding is Ford has committed to the UAW to keep the medium duty line open at Avon Lake until April of 2028.

Wow, you are not kidding. The 650 and 750 now account for less than 1% of all Ford truck sales.

No, I think he's talking about the class 3-4 LCF that had a tiny Mazda cab and an engine I would rather not talk about.

That's exactly right. Orion was a Canadian company but opened their NY plant to get the incentives. Nova Bus opened a plant in Plattsburgh for the same reason.

In all fairness, the Western Star deal included their plant in Kelowna B.C. and Orion Bus with their plants in Ontario and New York. That accounts at least in part for the much higher price. I think it's inaccurate to say that Freightliner (or rather DTNA) approached and somehow coerced Ford into selling their heavy truck operation for pennies. Ford very clearly wanted out of the heavy truck business for two primary reasons, first low profits, and second, they wanted to convert KTP to exclusive production of the upcoming Super Duty line of light trucks. I was told at the time this was all happening Ford was very close to including all medium duty trucks in the deal (they were built at KTP as well), but made a last-minute decision to keep the F series medium duty in production in Escobedo Mexico. The Freightliner deal did include the Cargo series medium duty trucks. The Acterra line used the former Ford cab on a Freightliner chassis, and later versions of the Cargo were built on Freightliner FL 60/70 chassis. The Acterra was a close approximation to the HN80 medium duty F series replacement Ford was planning for sometime around 1999. Ford didn't break out class 8 sales from class 6 and 7 sales back in those days, but by 1996 Ford's class 8 share by itself was very small and shrinking. Ford's strength was in medium duty and class 7 vocational. Freightliner was primarily after those vocational class 7 sales as they were weak in that specific area. Freightliner also wanted the dealer network and the Ford parts business was icing on the cake. The one part of the deal Freightliner was perhaps less excited about was Ford's over-the-road class 8 business, as that was a market Freightliner was particularly strong in. In fact, Ford had shown a prototype HN80 long-nose forward axle OTR conventional model was to have replaced the Louisville LTL as Ford's flagship heavy truck, but Freightliner dropped the program and focused Sterling on vocational and fleet truck sales. To this day I have wondered what happened to the 2 long nose HN80 prototypes that were built. There were pictures of one of them taken at a commercial truck show in late 1996.