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Matt Wood, Truck TV Australia / March 15, 2018 The distinctive rumble of a Mack V8 has all but disappeared from Australian highways. Matt Wood spent some time behind the wheel of two old bangers in South Australia to indulge in in some sooty E9 worship. .

Steve Brooks is the best truck industry journalist in the world.....bar none.

Steve Brooks, Truck TV Australia / March 8, 2018 As the saying goes, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but rather the size of the fight in the dog, and therein is the essence of the Cummins X12. Small in stature, it is an engine punching well above its weight. Literally! Yet despite an extensive test program and growing demand, it’s a pocket performer still looking for a truck to call home. .

Why don't you shoot an email to the new Mack brand president, Martin Weissburg, and ask him? Take your question direct to the man who should have that very answer. Martin.Weissburg@Volvo.com

You're right, the Madison plant was an embarrassment. But Denton is just the opposite. ----------------------------------------------------------- For those who don't know what we're talking about: https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2009/09/28/daily7.html https://www.nashvillepost.com/home/article/20403534/peterbilt-closing-madison-plant http://wkrn.com/2009/12/01/peterbilt-plant-closes-doors-for-good/

I prefer the Peterbilt Denton plant. The feel, atmosphere, is completely different from the Kenworth plants. I do like Kenworth's Bayswater plant though.

That logo was used by Sears from 1984 to 1994. That familiar engine, with the plastic fuel tank, doesn't look old to me.......it seems as though it was just yesterday that those silver Craftsman lawn & garden machines were being sold.

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Scania Group Press Release / March 10, 2018 Today is International V8 Day. Scania’s Chief V8 Engineer Roger Olsson welcomes all the many thousands of V8 enthusiasts around the world to celebrate this great engine. “We celebrate the V8 for its unique appeal – when emotion meets logic. This engine is the perfect mix of impressive hard and soft characteristics – the singular sound and the outstanding performance. This is truly one of its kind in the world of engines.” Every year on March 10th, V8 fans around the world celebrate the V8 engine. It was on that day in 1932 that the first mass-produced V8 engine left Ford’s factory. Since then, V8 engines have found a place in everything from Rolls-Royce cars to Scania trucks, as well as in boats, buses and even motorcycles, providing sheer power and a distinctive rumble. .

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Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / March 16, 2018 Swedish truck maker Scania has finalized a deal with a Finnish fleet to begin testing platooning technology on Scandinavian highways. Scania has been a European leader in truck platooning technology, which uses advanced vehicle safety systems, wireless communications, and autonomous vehicle controls to allow long-haul tractor-trailers to travel in convoy formations with decreased following distances to boost fuel economy thanks to increased vehicle aerodynamics. Scania has signed an agreement with Ahola Transport to use both Scania trucks and autonomous vehicle technology to test semi-autonomous platooning operations involving three or more vehicles on public roadways. The first vehicle will be operated in cruise mode with a human driver steering. All the following trucks in the platoon will be operated under full autonomous control with human drivers monitoring driving operations. Scania called the agreement a “landmark” in the development of autonomous vehicle technology, noting that it is the first such agreement in Europe between a truck OEM and a fleet. Scania officials said the trials in actual traffic situations and varying weather conditions are essential for building public acceptance and confidence in the technology. An Ahola spokesperson noted that the fleet's very first truck purchase, in 1959, was a Scania and that it looked forward to extending that long-term cooperation toward finding new transportation solutions for the trucking industry. .

Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / March 16, 2018 Kenworth is offering new standard track options for its Paccar proprietary front axle lineup available for Class 8 vocational models. Designed for construction and vocational application, the Paccar says its front axle enhances vehicle payload-carrying capability and complements the performance of Paccar’s MX-11 and MX-13 engines. The Paccar front axle was introduced last year with wide track configurations rated at 20,000 pounds and 22,800 pounds. Paccar front axles use an specially designed, tapered, kingpin roller bearing, which simplifies the design and delivers improved steering efficiency and offers steering angles up to 50 degrees. The axles have a five-year / 750,000-mile warranty. “The Paccar front axle with standard track is an important addition for the vocational market as it provides the best axle/wheel/tire combination to achieve a 20,000-pound rating with 425-series tires, while also offering excellent wheel-cut and maneuverability,” said Kurt Swihart, Kenworth marketing director. Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle Website Kenworth has also launched a new, dedicated, website for its Kenworth Certified Pre-Owned program at www.KenworthCertified.com. The website features a listing of pre-owned certified trucks from participating Kenworth dealers. Available in the United States and Canada, the program offers top-condition Kenworth Class 8 trucks. To qualify, each Kenworth Certified Pre-Owned Class 8 truck must be four model years of age or less, have mileage under 450,000 miles, and pass an extensive 150-point inspection completed by Kenworth certified technicians. .

The two brands have never been similar in my eyes.

Just as the dual sales channel Chevrolet/ GMC strategy works well for GM, resulting in greater overall sales, the Kenworth/Peterbilt arrangement has worked well to target a broader range of potential customers, to Paccar’s benefit. It all boils down to management’s latest thought process, one or more executive’s personal opinion, rather than what is actually right. Paccar would not have the North American market share it enjoys today if it had only a single brand all these years.

At Ford Trucks, we’re serious about trucking. It's why we designed the all-new 2019 Ford Cargo heavy truck range from the ground up to meet your needs and expectations. See your authorized Ford heavy truck dealer for details. . .

Transport Topics / March 15, 2018 U.S. retail sales of Class 8 trucks shot up 49% in February to nearly 17,000 units as all but one truck maker posted high double-digit gains. Truck makers sold 16,687 units compared with 11,200 a year earlier, WardsAuto.com reported. Year-to-date, sales climbed 40.6% to 31,145. They are forecast to surge this year compared with 2017. “Truckers’ profits are off to the races, and when truckers make money they buy trucks,” Michael Baudendistel, a financial analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., wrote in a note to investors. In the 2017 fourth quarter, revenue per mile (excluding fuel surcharges) for public truckload carriers rose 10% year-over-year. As a result of the new tax reform law, their net margins are expected to increase 6% to 7% compared with 4% on average, Baudendistel wrote. “This is kind of the natural outcropping of what we have seen swelling over the last six months or so [as Class 8 orders topped 218,000],” said another analyst. He said a cycle of strong retail sales is at hand. Its latest forecast calls for North American Class 8 sales in 2018 to increase 25% to 314,500 compared with 252,000 in 2017. In 2019, the total is expected to stay essentially flat at 314,800. “Everybody is expanding to get what [freight] they think they can get” amid vigorous freight demand, nearly full-truck utilization and high rates, said Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles, at research firm FTR. “Now, in most places logistics is much harder to manage,” he said. The demand for trucks has truck makers ratcheting up production rates, which now stretch into October at Daimler Trucks North America, the company reported. DTNA’s Freightliner brand sold a leading 6,310 heavy-duty trucks, up 46.4% from a year earlier and good for a 37.8% market share. Western Star, DTNA’s niche brand, sold 379, up 34.9% from the 2017 period, earning it a 2.3% share. In a survey of about 25 DTNA dealers, they reported extended lead times for Freightliner are longest for over-the-road Class 8 trucks, according to Neil Frohnapple, director of equity research at The Buckingham Research Group, who conducted the survey. “A few dealers are concerned that customers could switch to other [truck makers] with shorter production lead times from their respective factories,” Frohnapple wrote in a note to investors. For International Trucks, a unit of Navistar Inc., sales hit 2,244, up 71.8% from the 2017 period and good for a 13.4% share. International’s backlog also is filling out the third quarter, the company said. “So everybody wants the best deal they can, but what they really want is the overall best value. And we’ve been very, very successful with the launch of our new products, particularly the LT [on-highway Class 8], and the A26 [12.4-liter engine] is doing extremely well also,” Michael Cancelliere, Navistar’s president of truck and parts, said March 8 during a fiscal-year first-quarter earnings call with analysts. At Peterbilt Motors Co., sales were 2,487, up 36.9% from a year earlier and good for a 14.9% share. Kenworth Truck Co. notched 2,100 sales, a year-over-year increase of 57.8% and good for a 12.6% share. Peterbilt and Kenworth are units of Paccar Inc. In February, Peterbilt introduced its Model 579 UltraLoft, an 80-inch integrated sleeper that has a 2% improvement in aerodynamics over the company’s current detachable sleeper. Production is scheduled to begin this summer. At the same time, Paccar is not concerned with 2018 being the possible peak of the current cycle, CEO Ron Armstrong said during a recent fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts. “We’ll flex to adjust to whatever the market demands are, and it’s a real strength of our company,” Armstrong said. Volvo Trucks North America sold 1,973 trucks, an 88.3% gain from a year earlier, and earned an 11.8% share. VTNA on March 14 launched its updated Class 8 VNX model designed for heavy-haul applications, which the company said made up a high-profile segment of the industry. It is available for order as a day cab, flat roof or midroof sleeper. The earlier version came on the market in 2013. Mack Trucks sold 1,194 trucks, an 8.1% gain over the year-earlier period, for a 7.2% share. “We expect there will be great opportunities this year,” said Jonathan Randall, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Mack Trucks North America. “We also expect some challenges along the way as we continue to keep a close eye on supply chain disruptions that can occur during a booming year.” .

Ford set to replace 75% of North American lineup in 2 years Michael Martinez, Automotive News / March 15, 2018 4 new nameplates planned DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. says it aims to supplant Toyota Motor Corp. as the top seller of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. in three years as part of a dramatic reshaping of its lineup to focus heavily on utility vehicles and pickups. The automaker plans to add two off-road SUVs and create hybrid or electric versions of its other utilities with the expectation that light trucks will account for nearly seven out of every eight vehicles it sells in 2020. The automaker on Thursday said it would replace more than 75 percent of its North American lineup and add four nameplates within the next two years. It said the product blitz would reduce the average age of its fleet to 3.3 years from 5.7, giving it the industry's freshest lineup among full-line automakers. By 2020, Ford expects pickups, utilities and vans to be 86 percent of its sales, up from about 70 percent today. It will have eight utilities in North America, up from six today. Ford plans to offer a hybrid variant -- either a traditional hybrid, a plug-in hybrid or both -- on every new utility it adds or redesigns moving forward. The automaker expects to overtake Toyota in hybrid sales by 2021. Ford is currently No. 2. "We're moving past hybrids as a science project," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, told reporters during an event at the automaker's product development center. "They're an accepted, reliable technology, and we want to make them as emotional and valuable as the desirable EcoBoost." The announcements followed months of pressure by analysts and investors who have asked for more concrete proof of Ford's plans to cut costs and transform its business. Wall Street and industry observers in recent months have criticized Ford as having an outdated product portfolio that, outside of the F series and Mustang, relies too heavily on low-margin cars and older SUVs. "Our passion for great vehicles is stronger than ever," Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in a statement. "This showroom transformation will thrill customers, drive profitable growth and further build toward our future of smart vehicles for a smart world." Product changes Ford's new utility offerings will fall into one of two categories: performance-oriented or off-road. "Where we compete is what you're seeing Ford bet on," Farley said. "We don't just want to be in the generic SUV business. We want to be either in the performance or in the high-speed, off-road business." That means an expansion of the Ford Performance ST badge, which Ford has already announced for the freshened Edge coming this year. There will also be an Explorer ST, Farley said Thursday. He also said Ford will offer a "lineup of off-road SUVs," including a small, purpose-built SUV and the Bronco, which is arriving in 2020. Farley said Ford was looking to target brands such as Jeep and Land Rover but with a different customer in mind. "Both of these vehicles are for a growing group of people who want to simplify their life and get out there with their family and friends," he said. "For Jeep, that's rock-crawling in Moab. For Ford, our people want true off-road vehicles that are comfortable at high speeds. They don't want SUVs that look like doomsday vehicles or have spartan, government-issued interiors." Additionally, Farley said Lincoln plans to offer two SUVs by 2020, including the Explorer-based Aviator. He said the luxury brand will add four utilities after 2020 but declined to go into specifics. In addition to off-road SUVs, Ford has said it plans to unveil a Mustang-inspired battery-electric SUV, tentatively referred to as the Mach 1. "That vehicle is going to be famous without having to shoot it up in space," Farley said, in a reference to Elon Musk's stunt that launched a Tesla Roadster via a SpaceX rocket last month. Operations changes Ford is working to make its vehicle-building process more efficient. It expects to achieve $4 billion in engineering efficiencies over the next five years. Among those efficiencies, it's reducing by 20 percent the time it takes a vehicle to go from a sketch to the showroom, and it's improving its plant changeover time by 25 percent. Moving forward, Ford said it plans to build its vehicles off five flexible, modular architectures. They are: front-wheel-drive unibody; rear-wheel-drive unibody; commercial unibody; body-on-frame; and battery electric. Ford also will significantly reduce the number of combinations available for order. For example, Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of global operations, said there will be just two or three different moonroofs instead of today's seven. Roughly 80 percent of Ford vehicles are built using only 10 to 20 percent of combinations, he said. "Every action we now take is driven by what will serve our customers in a way that supports our business priorities," Hinrichs said. Ford shares rose 0.45 percent to close at $11.07 on Thursday. New tech Ford also plans to offer more standard driver-assistance technology. It has rolled out a number of features over the years, but now plans to package five of them together under a new name: Ford Co-Pilot360. That includes automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitor, backup camera, lane keep assist and auto high beams.