Bob Rosadini

AK You make my point. The fleet buyer sure does. In particular if he goes back to the old days and bought Louisvilles and then committed to HN-80..and then found out the new trucks he had recently took delivery of or had on order were gone..or maybe he was relieved that Daimler was the buyer and they would be serious about heavy trucks. And they were for 10 years until they came out with F'liners that duplicated the "Fords". Now go to today's market. In Mass a very large distributor of recovery trucks-wreckers, roll backs, rotators- keeps a big inventory of completed units ready to go in service. Up to class 5, I would say Ford rules followed by Ram. Class 6 and 7?...International followed by F-liner, Paccar and lately Hino. Ford a minority. Do 650/750 meet basic specs? Yes, but if a buyer wants air brakes and a gas engine? No luck -and do you think some buyers may view Ford's ever diminishing order guides a sign of things to come. Could be. Remember, blowing up Bluediamond IMO was in part a "bone" thrown to UAW when production of 650/750 moved from Mexico to OAP. Yesterdays newspaper.

If I had to guess as to the poor sales of 650/750, I would say the lack of promotion is the biggest reason sales are what they are. I would think to the experienced fleet guy that might be viewed as the kiss of death. Do I want to invest in trucks that will probably no longer be around in a year or two? As I've previously mentioned, The New England Ford dealers ran their own add frequently on tv spots highlighting Super Duty capabilities-snow plows- but they also included a 650/750 pulling a tag with a TLB on it. And as to capabilities of the Power Stroke/Ford trans, while I was a skeptic, A friend runs a heavy spec 650 dump- that also pulls his heavy tag trailer- derated to 25,999 to avoid the CDL issue and in his mind the truck is a winner as it is pushing 100,000 miles. And as Joe mentioned, CT. DOT has them in their fleet as does Mass DOT. And I have seen them out this past winter on secondary roads with 10/11' plows.

Good thought...but while GM was selling Suburbans weren't they also selling Passenger versions of the Chevy van?

Thx Joe. No clue what the Suburban sales figures were but wonder what Ford's wisdom was not to offer such a vehicle

For sure, almost comical. They identify the the uncertainty with respect to investment decisions that to a large degree are out of Ford's control but.....????

I remember in the class 8 days Don's Ford moved a lot of heavy trucks.

And to a lesser extent International and F'liner A market where Ford ruled with mostly LN-8000 and C-8000 before that went away.

Joe, It is only good news if Ford choses to capitalize on it. Like offer a tilt hood for serviceability on 450-600...which they won't🤔. I'm not sure what the Chevy/ International numbers were vs Ford but looking at the bi weekly truck rag that comes out covering New England there were always a lot of unsold 23 and 24 model years advertised.

On another note, terrible incident happened outside of Boston last week. A 30 year old trooper had ended his shift at 2AM. Was headed home....Mass Troopers take their vehicles home..when call came in on SB vehicle traveling on US 1 in NB lane. He answered call and in a few minutes had a headon with the SB vehicle- a Jeep 4dr. Assumption is he attempted to perform a blocking move. He was driving a new Tahoe. Jeep driver dead at scene, and Trooper passed at hospital. Just curious, anyone know frontal crash ratings for Tahoe vs Explorer Interceptors? Bulk of MSP vehicles are Explorers but they do have a good number of Tahoes. My small town all Explorers except for a 150 EB. Neighboring town mix of Tahoes and Explorers. Tahoes are in fact cheaper under state contract. I'm of course a Ford diehard, but my prejudices aside, given less cost of Tahoe with its pushrod V-8, that would be my choice. Also love my Coyote 150, but Ford in their wisdom only offer Police rated 150 with 3.5EB. Now that 6.8 is not longer offered in Super Duty, would that fit in a 150? Or an Expedition?

Seems like a tall order, improve your quality, and do it for less🤔 How many of the recalls are related to an outsourced component failure? Back in the days of a more vertically structured company I would imagine the quality and the cost were viewed by the same people seeking the best resolution on both counts.

AK thx but I guess I'm not only "old", but also "Old School"😎

Very good...Let's see?? I think we have been here before. Remember when Jac the Knife bought a bunch of "Junk yards"..OR "Salvage Yards"? In an interview with the Boston Globe he said.."this will enable us to analyze parts failures" or words to that effect. My thought at the time was.." why not look at your warranty claims first!" As you know that effort was a failure. Ford bought a local yard for a very large sum...the family ended up buying it back from Ford at a fire sale price, and they are doing very well today😎

Since my 23 150 was new I had my auto start/stop feature disabled. As I recently prevailed on the dealer to change my battery under the warranty-many of you have responded to my previous posts on that subject -thx, I now am faced with the the ASS feature-no pun intended- takes over and it shuts the truck off. As I would rather pay for the thimble full of gas that the feature saves vs a shortened starter life, I checked my owner's manual on ability to disable permanently -no such thing. Any opinions? By the way I stumbled on a you tube post on how to extend the life of your Ford or some such language. Disabling this feature was one thing.

For sure on the 25-55 HP range. I've had 3 JD's in those HP ranges-all hydro. My 4720-now 4066 -is rated at 58HP. Primary use involves loader work-either with bucket or grapple to handle brush or logs. Do you loose some HP? I'm sure but IMO bullet proof. When working my way through school I worked for a contractor-we had a Ford tractor that was unique -manual trans with an aftermarket driving front axle-Elanco. this was back in the days when 4WD loader/back hoes did not exist except for the Bucyrus Erie Dynahoe-which were BIG machines. Needless to say this Ford was "all gears" including the shuttle stick- complete stop before direction change. I believe the big Deere compacts with the "Power Reverser" trans require use of clutch to change gears but the reverser does not.

That is my point. And if they do learn, they will go and spend a lot of money at a driving school-and their chances of getting hired driving a class 7 or 8 will depend on just how hot the economy is- or they will be willing to work for very low wages.

thx for education😎

They were a good bang for the buck to use an old phrase. I bought a good number of Louisvilles when I was in a staff job and when I went to a unit mgr operations job the company continued to buy them-in particular for my operation...until the weight issue and Freightliner agresiveness took over. As I think I have said previously, IMO they should have stuck with the original truck with minor changes as a vocational truck. Thinking that they could make a dent in the OO market was a bad assumption. The Paccar twins for sure own that and it will be interesting just how well Mack makes out with their latest attempt at capturing a good share of that OO market. And speaking of Mack, if there was a market they ruled here in the northeast, it was construction. Now unfortunately you are seeing many such fleets going to Paccar and Western Star. And Macks decision to no longer offer manual transmissions in their new trucks will probably accelerate that trend. With many new CDL drivers road testing on automatics thereby restricting their license rating that may prove to support that decision but for the near term it will hurt them IMO.

Tall order that for some reason Ford can't do. My son helped my granddaughter buy a 21 Escape...She is college sophomore that is pursuing a major that will get her a real job. She loves her Ford! A future buyer. I have to believe that most dealers thought this was a dumbass move. And not to go off thread but what is the idea of the day from Mr Farley as far as playing nice with China? Are they a safe bet today or the end of the American auto industry??? Check the box Mr F🤔arley

I don't speak as an "expert" but correct no air brakes on a 600. I think one of the biggest attractions-besides 4WD- is the physical size is less intimidating to the driver vs the size of the 650. For sure it is a safer alternative to a 550 at 19,500 gvw that is always overloaded to the max.

AK........As I was saying....It came up on the the log in to vote my shares..and perhaps it was another "senior" moment, but I'm sure it followed the proxy statement with a Ford "menu". However, as I've previously posted, New England Ford Dealers have run TV spots this winter featuring typical snow plow footage but also a shot featuring a 650/750 dump pulling a tag trailer carrying a loader/backhoe.

Could be, but what threw me was it was

I'm very familiar with that web site. So you are saying that it is ok for one Ford web site to be inconsistent with another?? And more importantly, if I found this Ford site while logging on to vote my shares- if I were another Ford shareholder that was considering buying more shares and wanted a better understanding of the product mix, this failure to carry class 5, 6, and 7 trucks would be acceptable????🤔

Thx, never knew the original agreement had such a term limit. Ford should benefit from this but I would bet they will be indifferent to this opportunity. In voting my Ford shares yesterday I ended up on a Ford site that listed products. I clicked on trucks and guess what, no class 5, 6, or 7 trucks listed! Handwriting on the wall?? On another note, I took the time to read the bio for each director. Aside from the four family members and Farley, the rest of the proposed directors appeared to me to be HR, financial, or PR types with no what I would call "heavy manufacturing" experience, with one exception, that being Mr. May, Deeres CEO. Hopefully Bill Ford's commercial truck experience in his bio will bring some perspective, to say nothing of fact he is Chairman.

Very good..just saw this...534? You must be another old dude😎

Maybe a two billion lesson that can happen again when manufacturers think they can skirt regulatory issues?? PITA that regulation can be Also gives me another soap box to talk about gasoline in class 6 and 7😎