TeamsterGrrrl

Not surprised that the automakers are not overjoyed with Trump. With the Obama administration they at least knew what emissions and fuel economy standards they had to meet, and could plan for them. Now Trump comes along and wants to dump those standards after they've spent millions to meet them, while threatening to put oppressive tariffs on any Mexican content. Worse yet, Trump threatens to saddle the U.S. with even more oddball standards that are out of step with the rest of the worlds. Heck, Canada and certainly California certainly won't go along with Trump's regulatory rollbacks, throw in Mexico and that leaves manufacturers to deal with 4 sets of standards on one continent. Consider for a moment that even if Trump rolled back diesel emissions standards to pre 2001, Most of the diesel trucks on the market today came to market since 2001 and were never engineered to accommodate pre 2001 engines. And they're going to engineer pre 2001 engines into their current trucks for just half the already oddball U.S. market? Fat chance!

Sadly, some of the folks on this site engage in some grade school behavior towards Volvo- Because Volvo is slowly "borging" Mack, they respond by trashing Volvo. Mack built a great truck, back in the 60s and 70s with the Maxidyne-Maxitorque drivetrain they were decades ahead of the competition. Like other american classics like the Ford-Ferguson N series tractors, the DC-3, and the 707, Mack had a product that was equal too if not better than any other truck in the world. On the other side of the world, when most of the trucks were uncomfortable and unreliable, Volvo developed trucks like the F86, F88, and F89 that drivers actually liked and they didn't break down much. Back when I worked at the Postal Service our straight trucks were mostly Ford Cargos, but we had a few Volvo F6s. The Cargo was OK, but once in a while I got to drive the Volvo and it was clearly a better truck all round- better visibility, heating, ride, quieter, etc.. Since then Volvo has gutted Mack, though if you insist they'll still build you a Mack with Mack transmission, axles, and suspension. Volvo has cheapened their product in america, but it's still not a bad truck. So lets behave like adults... Trashing Volvo trucks does not make Mack a better truck.

I was rather amused when the infrastructure stocks took off yesterday, and took the opportunity to dump another loser stock. Trump wants his (infrastructure) cake, but doesn't want to pay for it- Note the codewords for "toll road" in his statements. Indiana already tried that, the privatized toll road went bankrupt. Truth is, "world class" highways cost money, and if the users ain't gonna accept higher fuel taxes or other fees, we're going to be stuck with the same crumbling 1:1 scale futurama we built in the 50s and 60s, then never properly funded for it's maintainence.

When it comes to international relations, even with allies, Trump is going to be "trying", can't argue with the PM there. But unless he decides to penalize Germany as well as Mexico and China, Trump's administration will probably go easier on VW. As far as VW getting out of the 2 liter TDI settlement, that's a done deal that could only be undone by the agreement of all concerned, and the trial lawyers ain't gonna let that happen. But a Trump tariff on Mexican assembled new VWs could hurt VW's prospects for putting owners of the bought back TDIs into new VWs.

I agree, the U.S. truck market is oddball and cheap to boot, so we get stuck with the leftover and cast off technologies. Never seems to amaze me how companies will buy the cheapest truck when they're going to spend over a million dollars on repairs, fuel, and driver wages during the truck's lifetime.

Wish there were a "White Knight" available to save Mack, and it'll have to be a white knight with deep pockets. You probably know the numbers better than I do, but I've heard the BILLION $$$ figure quoted as the cost of developing a new vehicle, and didn't Scania just invest twice that in their new line of trucks? That's a lot of money to put into a conventional cab class 8 truck, given that the whole world market for big conventionals is only 200,000 to 300,000 trucks a year, and 200,000 units a year is considered to be the minimum viability number for a light truck, and increasingly so for a heavy truck. A new Mack could try to use the same design for both cabovers and conventionals to increase the potential markets, but that tends to yield ugly results unless you make almost every panel unique to each version like Volvo did. You could try to move down into class 6 and smaller truck markets, but that's a pretty price competitive market with big players like GM and Ford that can leverage their mass production pickup cabs and engines to drive prices down. There's also the problem of a limited Mack dealer network beyond North America and Australia. And Mack would still need to automate the Maxitorque transmissions and update their axles and bogies, and then there's the not too small matter of sourcing an engine. Then again, Cummins and Eaton have some pretty deep pockets, and their market share is threatened by integrated manufacturers...

Good to see the "modular" V10 finally getting retired, it was never intended to be a medium truck engine to begin with. Then again, you have to wonder why anybody would tool up a new V-8 today... But nowhere does Ford say that this is a V8. But a 7 liter inline 6 would have fitment problems in light trucks, and one wonders if the market for a 7 liter gas engine is big enough to justify the tooling, even with gasous fuel conversions included. But then again, Ford never said it was just a gas engine... Think I'll wander over to media.ford.com etc. in search of those devilish details.

If Obama hadn't saved the auto industry another million people would be unemployed and Michigan and Ohio would probably have gone bankrupt.

Problem is, there ain't much Mack left- Just the 3 decade old conventional cab, even older low tilt cabs, the Maxitorque transmissions, and the axles. Good designs, but showing their age- New designs would be more aero and ergonomic, many drivers can't handle a manual transmission, and with traction control now standard, is the Mack bogie still needed? And how 'bout an engine... Cummins is threatened with loss of market share from integrated competitors, but prefers to specialize on engines and leave those engine's homes to the truck makers. But Cummins did venture beyond engines decades ago when they bought Onan and gave their engines a home next to Onan's generators. To survive, maybe Cummins will have to buy Mack?

Makes sense- Many big governments and corporations are pretty dysfunctional and inefficient.

Wonder why Volvo isn't offering this to Mack and Volvo dealers in the U.S.... Is the noncompete agreement with GM still in effect?

AXL doesn't look encouraging- They're major products are drivetrains for rear and all wheel drive vehicles while cars and even SUVs are trending toward transverse engines with front wheel drive. The other problem they have is that the Chinese, Indian, etc. manufacturers are in the same market and can undercut them. Add in the doldrums the world's car and truck market seems to be sinking into, and I was happy to short Metaldyne

Yup, time to convert more stocks to cash so I can go on a buying spree when the market bottoms. American Axle announced they're purchasing Metaldyne today, provided me good opportunity to liquidate Metaldyne at a profit.

The U.S. markets are largely following the probabilities of a Trump victory- Trump's chances rise, and the market falls. If Trump wins, we'll see a near market crash the next day. A more likely scenario is a contested election result, with Hillary narrowly winning the popular vote while Trump wins or is close to winning the electoral college. That's leave us with years of legal challenges to the election and no confidence in whoever manages to wrangle access to the White House on January 20th. Then again, Trump has already hinted he wouldn't live in the White House... Maybe he's going to move to Trump Hotel DC and claim to be president, even if he loses? Glad I'm mostly in foreign markets, international companies, and cash!

Saw one of these up by Minot, pulling a van trailer. The trailer looked to be a bit over width, probably 10-12 feet wide and tall and long too. Looks like they tried to give it the proportions of a normal cabover tractor trailer rig though in hopes the Russians looking at aerial photos would think it's a normal trailer. They built their barracks/offices for the missile crews similar, looks like a normal ranch house on a hill from a distance. Get up close and you see it's 2 stories tall and a hundred or so feet long!

I don't know if you guys have figured this out yet, but "Vogue" is targeted to women.

Cummins may be on to something here- The 4BTs were so popular that when the Hostess step vans were auctioned off, buyers were pulling the 4BT engines and leaving the rest of the trucks behind! Success will depend on price though, if Cummins prices their engine only a couple thousand over the cost of a rebuilt or crate gas engine they will sell a bunch. Would fit well in my '98 Ranger...

No MB diesels for 2017 in the U.S., not even in a Sprinter. May be no 2017 light duty diesels, period- the EPA has been dragging their feet on emissions certifying diesels.

I do similar, buy a new car every 10 years or so, the old one becomes a spare so I usually get at least 20 years use out of them. Besides the '13 TDI, I've got a "03 Golf TDI and a '98 Ranger 4x4. Same with the bikes, have a '13 Yamaha Super Tenere, '07 BMW F800S, '01 Buell M2L, '00 Guzzi Quota, and 3 BMW "airheads". All run except the F800S that I'm trying to find a permanent fix for it's failing stators and one of the airheads that's apart to get it's frame repainted.

I've got a 2013 Jetta (Golf) Sportswagon (Variant) too. I'd prefer to keep it, but the buyback for almost new price is too tempting to resist. But if I can't buy an equivalent diesel wagon, I may keep the TDI... Without redeeming features like the TDI diesel, VW's are just overly expensive cars to maintain that break too much.

On the ethical issues, I can now see why Ford tested diesel cars in the U.S. but hasn't sold them here, and why the diesel Cruze has such drivability problems- Ford figured out that it would be too expensive to comply with our EPA regs, and GM had done the best they could under the EPA rules with the Cruze. VW? They just cheated! Was reading up a bit on VW's ethics policy the other day, and you'd think they'd have toughened it a bit. But little has changed. BMW's been having ethics problems in their purchasing too, reportedly since then their buyers have been told to consider durability as well as price in their purchasing decisions... That may explain why BMW motorcycles have become such lemons.

The congress critters should read the settlement- VW is required to spend the 2 billion on promotion and infrastructure for all electric vehicles, and cannot use the money just to promote their own. In other words, the charging stations VW pays for cannot have sockets that only fit VW electric car plugs.

Unimpressed by VW's new SUV: https://gearheadgrrrl.com/2016/10/28/vw-youve-lost-me/

North America and Europe are mature markets that aren't growing. Developing markets could theoretically yield continuing volume growth, but as Chinese, East Indian, etc. folks move from the country to the cities, even if they can now afford cars there's no place to park them. That's the new normal, throw in the fact that less consumers can afford cars and auto production may have leveled off. Trucks are different- Even in congested metro areas they're a necessity and users will find somewhere to park them. A Transit will fill that niche 'til the business outgrows it, which is why Ford needs a cabover in it's medium truck offerings...

Had a couple false hooks in my career, fortunately I caught them before I put the vehicle in motion. I'm amazed that false hooks were never covered in the 6 mont driving school I attended in the 70s or in UPS training.