TeamsterGrrrl

That's the problem... Volvo wants to run ccokie-cutter trucks down the assembly line and discourage low volume options by making them expensive after-assembly "mods". This jacks the price of options like dual front axles and all wheel drive up to the point where hardly anybody buys them, and the resulting low volume is used by Volvo to justify their predilection for cookie-cutter trucks. I was looking at our DOT's bids on trucks recently and noticed that dual steering axles were around a $10,000 upcharge on Western Star, but cost 2 to 3 times that on Mack and other brands. Clearly Daimler's Western Star has figured out how to do "flexible mass production", and Volvo hasn't!

Another view: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.965531,-93.201109,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1s116394108!2e1!3e10!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fproxy%2FkjJgOsc3rETpyTE4ghk-P5tOjY9GZGuxWBkOH0YBZxgq1zHFaMdsTT-tBMBOnoOr3pX5X6Ed27GOR9617nnA2wn9lqblxYU%3Dw208-h100!7i3502!8i1678 The dealership moved to a new facility a couple miles away in the early 70s. The parking lot on the left used to be a great bar and grille, was our Teamster Union hangout back when one of the Business Agent's wife worked there.

Mack logo preserved in the old St.Paul dealership building: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9652244,-93.2010864,3a,37.5y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFp4WIaEzlQaw0_LiZtSZuA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DFp4WIaEzlQaw0_LiZtSZuA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D154.24101%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

I'm not exactly a puppet of SEMA, but this regulation shows how little the EPA understands of racing. They're aiming at the "coal rollers", but managing instead to shoot racers in the back and themselves in the foot. And this is the agency that along with the even more "drunk with power" CARB that thinks it can fix the VW diesels?

IIRC, Navistar is in trouble with EPA and CARB over emissions failures too. The numbers are a lot smaller than VW's, but Navistar is a lot smaller company. Thus Navistar is considered toxic by potential buyers and remains unsold, despite it's low stock price.

The emissions scandal in the U.S. is getting more expensive- VW is buying back dealer inventories of used LNT only diesels from 2009-14. That suggests that VW will voluntarily or by force have to buy back the same cars from consumers, and there's around 400,000 of them out there. Thus VW may want to turn the truck side of the conglomerate into cash to fund a recovery from the diesel emissions debacle.

I suspect a lot of savvy buyers have figured out that a Renault is pretty much the same truck as a Volvo, with a lower price...

After a decade of integrated truck makers trying to squeeze them out, Cummins survives and thrives... There's a lesson there.

Thanks for bringing this all together- It gives us a better perspective.

OK, so what if Mack decides to do their own new cab, do a deal with Scania to share engines and build them at the Mack powertrain plant, and make the Mack drivetrain standard and drop to Volvo transmission options... Wonder how long that'd last in the boardroom?

We've become quite distrustful of Volvo= We'll believe it when we see it!

Heck, just buy a CL or a Superliner and be done with it!

What do you guys think of Bernie Sanders?

I wouldn't worry about the 6.7 Ford diesel, even at max 55k GCW... This is a 2nd generation updated 6.7 that's been derated for medium duty applications. The early 6.7 at full rating managed to survive idiots pulling big RVs and boats without problems, so a derated and upgraded 6.7 should have no problem pulling 55k pounds with even a halfway professional driver.

We've had somali moslems immigrating into Minnesota for a couple decades now, and all their "invasion" has accomplished is electing a school board and city council member... I think we have bigger security threats to worry about.

I take the samples from our towns water system. Our lab does not test for lead, only for coliform bacteria and to confirm the proper level of chlorine. Because we have newer plastic piping, we're not too concerned about lead. We are told to remove the aerator and run the tap for a couple minutes as well as sterilizing the faucet with flame or alcohol not to produce fake tests, but to avoid false positive tests from contaminants built up in the pipes.

Cummins builds great stuff because they attract people from diverse backgrounds and take advantage of their diverse skills. When you limit your workforce to angry old white guys the product suffers.

Why? Cummins Westport have the high HP end of the market covered and Ford and others have natural gas offerings in the medium and light sectors of the truck market. This sounds like another CARB boondoggle, and explains why an agency that does nothing but regulate air pollution can blow through a $600,000,000+ budget every year... Maybe it's time to recall CARB?

Reminds me of why I bought Cummins stock. Despite the integrated manufacturers attempts to squash Cummins, the customers keep demanding Cummins power and Cummins thrives! Too bad Mack wasn't bought by Cummins instead of Volvo, but Cummins isn't into the integrated manufacturing thing.

I'm glad those Somali kids are attending the Tech College, it means they'll have jobs and we'll have techs to fix our stuff in a few years!

Some of them had a button on the dashboard to disengage traction control, it sounded a buzzer and reengaged tracton control after a couple minutes. Could be that the rear axles have automatic lockers, too.

These "militias" are a joke... They were begging for food the first day and their "treasurer" went into town and got drunk on their treasury! They're already arguing and feuding with the other "militias", none of whom are "well regulated" as the constitution requires for second amendment rights to be valid. And defend the country even with illegal "full auto" weapons? Any decent military could shut these clowns down and have them behind bars before breakfast!

A lot of the federal lands are just plain lands that no one wanted, or people tried to homestead and failed. In the midwest where I'm from, a lot of our state and national forests are poor farmland that even if the homesteaders were able to "prove up" on and make good their claim, they later couldn't even raise enough on the land to pay the taxes. After this cycle of failure was repeated a few times, the government just made the land a park or forest and preserved the land for future generations.

Here's the half hourly tabular data: http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph_to_xml.php?gage=cpgm7&output=tabular&time_zone=cst The fast rise seems to have slowed some in the last hour, hopefully it's near cresting.

Define "real american"?