7Mary3

Look at the FJ's off road performance, equipment, break-over angles, groung clearance, and adaptability to suspension modification and tell me what Ford of the last 5 years comes close. The original Land Cruiser was designed by Toyota alone, but did use a copy of the old Chevy 235 for an engine. Toyota was competing with Datsun (Nissan) and Mitsubishi for a contract to supply utility vehicles to the Japanese Self-Defense Force in the early 50's. Mitsubishi was the one working with Willys Overland (not 'America', that was the name of a small car Willys sold in the 40's), and did get the contract with a license built copy of the M38. The Land Cruiser was thought to be too large and heavy, but Toyota decided to sell them on the civilian market anyway. The rest is history.

The class 4 and 5 Bullet is gone too: http://www.lmtruck.com/articles/lmtbase.aspx?storyid=294

About the potential GM/Chrysler merger. First off, it won't be a merger. Some say that what is really happening is that Cerberus wants to trade Chrysler for the rest of GMAC. Since Chrysler is basically worthless, Cerberus will throw in a very substantial pile of cash. That's where this all gets interesting. The result is that GM will have enough money to close Chrysler, and keep the good parts (Jeep and the vans). Cerberus gets all of GMAC, Chrysler Financial, and a big piece of the new GM. A competitor is gone, GM is larger, and now really is too big for the U.S. government to allow to fail. Cerberus figures it can't miss. Now, contrast that with Ford, loosing market share every quarter. Not too big to fail, and if the economy really gets bad, who will get bailed out? I don't like it one bit.

Got news for you, the FJ Cruiser is not a pretender. I just wish Ford would make something with the FJ's off road capability.

That might go back to what I have said all along: There is no money in low-bid fleet sales. Almost all of Sterling's sales went to fleets, almost none of Western Star's sales go to fleets. Western Star is an expensive premium truck.

It's true, Sterling never caught on. What was funny was that the reason Freightliner bought Ford's heavy truck line was supposed to be to expand in the vocational markets, but what seemed to happen (at least in my area) was that Sterling was only successful in regional hauling, delivery, and LTL markets. International saw the opportunity and push hard in vocational.

I am more upset about Sterling closing than the prospect of 'Blue Diamond' coming to an end. In addition to all those who will loose their jobs, the Sterling trucks were very much still Ford. Looked like Ford, drove like Ford, and full of Ford parts. Can't say that about those amorphodite F-650's and 750's. Only thing on them Ford was the cab. Oh, and the junk Motorcraft batteries. I am hearing the Esobedo plant will build International Prostar export models when 'Blue Diamond' ends. I think if Ford really wanted to stay in medium duty and return to heavy duty, they would have bought Sterling back. Wonder why they didn't.

Good question. It is interesting to note that 'Sterling' never enjoyed the same market share as Ford did.

Ford's former heavy truck operation that was sold to Freightliner will be discontinued next year. http://www.lmtruck.com/articles/lmtbase.aspx?storyid=290

Well, is there going to be one or not? I am in the commercial truck fleet business, and all that I have heard so far is that 'Blue Diamond' is coming to an end in Sept. '09. That was official, straight from Navistar. If that is true, then Ford would need to either find another partner or get to work on designing and manufacturing their own medium duty. I did hear rumors earlier this year that a potential partner had been indentified, and work was to start on the prototypes and pre-production versions of the new truck. A short time after that, I heard that the program was on hold, and the prototypes had been cancelled. There were also rumors that Ford had entered into an agreement with Cummins to be the exclusive engine supplier for the new medium duty trucks. For the last 5 months, nothing. Does anyone have any information on Ford's commercial truck plans?

We talked about this when it was announced that Mazda would stop using Ford Credit. This is scary, Ford is running out of things to sell. Is Volvo next?

Those figures seem a bit old. Take a look at Yahoo Finance for the latest. Didn't Ford get downgraded to CCC this week?

I don't think Ford is a likely take-over target as long as the Ford family continues to hold their special shares, which give them majority voting rights. If the Ford family should get cold feet and bail out, then all bets are off. Until then, if there is any foreign company that is eyeing Ford, they are probably waiting for Ford to go bankrupt.

This is true, but factor in record numbers of car loans in default and it could get ugly. Ford is mortgaged to the hilt, they couldn't borrow any more even if credt was not so tight. I find it interesting GM is only carrying $43B in total debt (since they sold GMAC), and they have not mortgaged everything (thought it was announced they were looking for an invester for the Ren Cen). Some say GM might do debt-equity swaps soon.

I seem to remember that was being considered in the late 70's.

Here's more news: http://www.lmtruck.com/articles/lmtbase.aspx?storyid=285

Vehicle packaging had a lot to do with going to a V-8. Back in the days of the G.M. 6.2/6.5, both of those diesels had the same motor mount locations and bell housing bolt patterns as a Chevy small or big block. The Duramax has roughly the same external dimensions as a big block, weighs about the same, and again has the same bell housing bolt pattern. There are significant differences between a Ram with a Cummins and one with a gas engine.

That is correct, the E Series still uses the 6.0L. The 6.4L, with its dual turbo setup, will not fit in the E Series. Ford has to pay an EPA fine for every diesel E Series they sell as they are not compliant with the 2007 standards. The future will be interesting. I am told that the 6.7L 'Scorpion' is not going into the E, but the 4.4L diesel might. The 4.4L may not be enough engine for a 12,000# ambulance, but many departments are going away from van-based ambulances anyway. It seems that more and more ambulances are being built on full medium duty chassis.

You shouldn't post pictures of G.M. products around here! That's an EMD GP-38-2.

Toyota has that plant in Princeton, Indiana that did produce the Tundra until all Tundra production moved to Texas. I seem to remember the Princeton plant was eventually going to build hybrid cars for sale in the U.S..

It was announced last week that GM will not sell their medium/heavy line to Isuzu. Latest rumor is GM will keep the line for the foreseeable future, as the UAW would only agree to the sale if another truck line was moved into the Flint plant to take the Topkick/Kodiak's place. The new truck was rumored to be a 4500/5500 series using the current GM full size pickup cab. That truck as been put on indefinate hold. Another rumor is Isuzu may pull out of the U.S. commercial truck market anyway.

I was kind of thinking the guys that bought trucks like this all got wiped out in the sub-prime meltdown.

My biggest fear (and a fear that is looking more likely every day) is that all the domestic automakers are going to loose the ability to finance their products. Domestic vehicles now depreciate so fast that not only is it getting almost impossible to lease them, but serious questions are arising about financing new cars and trucks. A large number of auto loans are in default, and that number is increasing. It is ironic that the Japanese manufacturers are not having near as much a problem. The reason for the steep depreciation of domestic vehicles of course is due in part to the collapse of the truck and SUV market, and also because many domestic passenger cars are sold in large numbers to fleets. Just think about what market share Ford will have if you have to pay a substaintially higher interest rate to buy one and leasing is not an option.

And Ford is down 13.3%. Don't think Ford is in any better shape than G.M..

Step 1 of a Mazda spin-off?