RoadwayR

I agree, but there is Navistar's debt issue. It makes them vulnerable. Better to agree on a deal with beneficial terms rather than be taken over with your back against the wall.

You know, I am not sure how much of the North American class 4/5 truck market LCF's are capable of taking. I have read were domestic class 4/5 LCF sales have doubled since 2010, and are running up 6% so far this year. As of now, you have Isuzu, Hino, and Fuso in the market, and none of these players has a very large distribution/dealer network. Throwing several hundred Chevy Commercial dealers into the game might make things very interesting. Also consider that before 2010, you also had a large number of Chevy, GMC, and Nissan UD dealers selling this type of truck. With those dealers gone, sales volume still increased significantly 2010-present. I too think a bias towards 6.5L+ diesels as used in the domestic conventional class 4/5 trucks was holding LCF sales back, but I think that is coming to an end. These engines are too large and powerful for economical class 4/5 use, and truck buyers may be starting to figure this out. Regardless, coming CAFE standards will eventually render those large diesels obsolete in class 4/5 anyway. Don't ignore the significance of the upcoming Detroit Diesel DD5 Freightliner and 5.2L Isuzu F series in class 6 either.

When Ford announced in late 2011 that they were bailing out of the 'Blue Diamond' JV with Navistar and building their own class 6/7 truck, the aluminum cab F-150 was still 3 years away. The Super Duty had just been updated for the last time, so I see where it made sense for Ford to at least launch the new 650/750 with the basic steel Super Duty cab. Now that the Super Duty 250-550 is changing over to the aluminum F-150 cab, I don't think it makes much sense to indefinitely continue the low volume 650/750 with the old steel cab, particularly since the 450/550 will be built in the same plant with the aluminum cab. So, my guess is the 650/750 will probably get the aluminum F-150 cab in a few years. I don't see near enough volume to come up with a dedicated cab for the 650/750.

My guess? The 650 and 750 will eventually get a version of the new 2017 aluminum Super Duty cab. Don't think an F-850 is coming.

Good point about Oshkosh's military business.

For a long time Navistar looked like the likely candidate, but didn't Renscher comment some time ago that VW was not necessarily looking for a large volume truck manufacturer? One would think if Navistar was the intended target or partner VW would have moved on it by now. You can't ignore that Navistar seems to be building a substantial relationship with GM (not a surprise considering all the ex-GM executives running NAV now) and I think we have not seen the full extent of that partnership. PACCAR would seem to be more of the type of partner VW is looking for, but could DAF be integrated into MAN and Scania eventually? What about Oshkosh?

Looks like they smoothed out the cab some, maybe the windshield has a bit more rake to it. I wonder if the short conventional TranStar will be similarly updated. I hear after the LT comes the CV TerraStar replacement.

That's funny because I remember a couple of trucking firms in the Los Angeles area back in the early 70's that ran Isuzu conventionals. I think it was Smiser and DeSalvo.

Wan't the CH cab recently revised? Thought they made it a bit longer. Wish they would go back to the original doors, I never liked Ford Super Duty the look of the dipped beltline.

Why did Nissan spend money on their NV1500/2500/3500 instead of bringing the Master to the U.S.?

In some applications the 'walk through' feature of a cut-away is an advantage. They probably make a little money on them, they stay in production for a very long time so I don't imagine tooling costs are much.

This just in: http://www.trucktrend.com/news/1606-navistar-to-build-gm-cutaway-vans-in-2017/

What do you hear of a replacement for the DuraStar?

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.