RoadwayR

Not out of the woods yet, but solid progress. Lots of new product coming, that will not hurt.

I think that Allison TC-10 is very interesting.

In a similar story, BYD (a Chinese company) was awarded a bid to supply the L.A.M.T.A. with electric buses, but U.S. firm Proterra was not. Lots of controversy surrounding that one.

When Isuzu introduced that cab on the N series they said it was a modular design that would eventually be used on most all of their vehicles.

I agree, and Isuzu's biggest problem of late in the U.S. is their dealer network. Selling the trucks from Chevy Commercial dealers should increase their volume substantially, and the reintroduction of the class 6 F series can only help. It was a mystery to me why Isuzu begged off the deal to take over GM's medium duty business back in 2009, but I guess the economic uncertainty at the time was too much for them. Isuzu also had plans to open their own plant. Interesting situation now. GM is back to selling Isuzu N series trucks, which are now assembled by Spartan Motors. GM is also working with Navistar in a deal that will likely be just as important to NAV as the LCF deal is to Isuzu. I am hearing that GM will be responsible for a lot of the design work going into the Chevy/International JV trucks, and rumors are that there will be more JV trucks beyond the Chevy class 4/5 medium conventional/International TerraStar replacement. International has also mentioned cabovers. Could GM be brokering something between Isuzu and Navistar? Interesting thought.

Class 5 and 6 will transition to 5L 4 cylinder diesels with the coming EPA regulations. Isuzu will be ahead of the curve with their new F series class 6 truck, and Freightliner will soon be offering a 5L Detroit Diesel in he M2.

There is also these guys: http://www.rainiertruckandchassis.com/ My understanding is they are manufacturing their own chassis and buying just a cab. Rainier is promising Cummins and PSI CNG/LNG/gasoline engines. They have been around a few years, but I have no idea how many trucks they have build so far, if any.

Hoping to hear from the man soon.........

Miss not reading up on the latest heavy duty/commercial inside news. Must be something interesting going on behind the scenes at Navistar at least!

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense, as it would have been a bit before my time. Not sure where the dealer was in later years either, the outfit I worked for didn't run Macks.

About the Los Angeles Branch, I used to go on parts runs down Alameda a lot, there were a lot of truck dealers there. GMC's L.A. Factory Branch, Alameda Ford Truck (formally City Ford), Sunset International, J.T. Jenkins Kenworth. There was once a big White dealer around there too. I don't remember the Mack dealer, but a large 30's era building is still at that address. Any ideas when the Mack dealer closed?

I wonder how things would have turned out if Chrysler would have been allowed to buy Mack in '64.

First sentence under "Good Fit". That sticks out to me, the part about North America being a good fit for VW- "AS WELL AS A POSSIBLE PARTNER". Seems to infer the 'possible partner' is not in North America at present. Iveco, anyone?

A very good analysis. It is also against a backdrop of the advantages of separating VW's passenger car/light truck operations from commercial vehicles.

Say what you will, but the air has gotten considerably cleaner in Southern California within the last 10 years. The Westport engines, in my opinion, are somewhat crude conversions of existing diesels. Their big advantage is that they interchange with Cummins diesels, but a CNG/LNG engine does not need to be nearly that large and heavy. Spark-ignition engines are under a lot less stress that compression-ignition. What is needed is a designed-from-the-start CNG/LNG engine family for large trucks. The PSI 8.8L comes close to ideal for medium duty trucks. It is basically a much-updated GM 8.1L, As for Ford, they do not really offer and CNG/LNG vehicles, they merely sell you a 'prep package', and it's up to you to find an 'approved' upfitter. My experiences with that have not been so great. GM is offering some 'factory' dual fuel vehicles, at least you can get parts and service through authorized dealers (not a problem). CNG has made great inroads here in transit bus and refuse fleets. It is not only cleaner, and the economics are there in many cases.

Good, an asset to sell to help cover their upcoming legal expenses.............

Page & Page, as I recall some of those were adjustable, 2/3 on the driver, 1/3 on the tag. Popular in the 60's.

I heard Brigadiers were built by GMC at their old Pontiac heavy truck plant until it closed in 1989. They were built alongside the earlier Cat 3208 powered Topkicks (and Kodiaks). When the new '530' series Topkick/Kodiak came out in late 1989 production moved to Janesville, WI.. The Brig. was indeed a very popular truck with a lot of fleets, particularly auto transporters. Agreed the WG was a cheap truck! I remember one fleet in Southern California had a few N-10's. That was all I ever saw of those trucks.

It seemed to me the N10 was dropped to make way for the GMC Brigadier when it became part of the White/GMC line.

With the loss of the Blue Diamond and now Caterpillar it's a safe bet Navistar will go after a GM joint venture to fill the assembly line in Escobedo.

The EPA never wanted SCR. They pushed Navistar when they saw NAV was trying to get by NOX regulations with EGR alone (maybe Cat too?). When NAV couldn't get EGR to work all of a sudden they became the bad guys in the EPA's eyes. Sure Ustain and the rest of the big shots should have cut their loses years before but in the end I think NAV was far more a victim than a criminal. It proves the EPA can't be trusted. BTW- there were allegations that some individuals working for the EPA owned patents for 'advanced EGR' that NAV was trying to use. If so that was some conflict of interest. Maybe that should be investigated.

How are the MAN based Navistar diesels now that they have SCR?

I don't know, I suggested an NPR to a friend 15 years ago, he never bought another domestic class 4/5 truck. Says the Isuzu's reliability, cost of ownership, and maneuverability is far superior to any domestic truck. Cabs are spacious, but not as easy to get in and out of. Isuzu's crew cab is far larger inside than any domestic. Body mounting is easier as well. Parts can be more expensive, but who cares if you don't need them?

And they want Navistar?

This isn't truck related, I believe GM is talking about small diesels for passenger cars and light trucks. In addition, these efforts will probably become more focused on other countries, primarily in Asia. Diesels will likely be slowly phased out of light vehicles in the U.S. and western Europe for cost and emissions reasons. France is already moving in that direction. BTW- what became of the rumors GM was getting back into medium duty trucks?