Driving Impresions of Cat's CT680L

[kscarbel2]

Today’s Trucking / February 3, 2016

This video showcases the driving experience by highlighting various driver amenities and cab features that reduce cab noise and make the driving experience pleasant.

Cat's new axle-forward CT680L is a work truck, make no mistake, bit Cat's approach is obviously that drivers shouldn't suffer for their craft. The CT680L is quiet and comfortable and includes some great driver amenities. Loads of storage space in the cab for all the small stuff, a dashboard that won't eat pens and cell phones and things you place up there and tremendous visibility.

Check out the Driving Impressions of the Cat CT680L to see all that I found to like on the truck. There are two more videos about the truck; one on the performance and functionality of the truck and a walk-around highlighting its significant features. We'll have those posted shortly.

Related information - http://www.drivecat.com/

 

 

[Mcrafty1]

Without seeing a price tag it's tough to make a call......but the truck looks like it belongs in the construction/ forest industry....could maybe be the next 'Mack truck'? since Mack no longer builds one. Sad day when Mack stopped being a Mack.

[41180]

Mack no longer makes a forestry heavy haul truck ? Funny Idrive one every day

[ws721]

But is that a Mack or a Volvo powered reMack?

[HeavyGunner]

What is cat powering their trucks with? Did they get back into the truck engine game?

[41180]

Just as much a Mack as that cat is a cat .

[41180]

Cat has a MAN engine international cab the only thing cat is the automatic transmission.

[james j neiweem]

Logtruckman: I wonder how the Titan is doing out west in logging country

[HeavyGunner]

Logtruckman: I wonder how the Titan is doing out west in logging country

Would think the Titan would make an awesome log truck but I've never seen one in western Montana.

[Mcrafty1]

Mack no longer makes a forestry heavy haul truck ? Funny Idrive one every day

Quit lying to yourself...Mack stop building 'Macks' in 1986 (last year of the thoroughbred) and they've gone down hill till they reached their present day truck which is as far removed from a 'Mack' as they could get.They build mongrels and hang Mack emblems on their nose...it's as the saying goes.....'just because a cat has her kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits'

This is just my humble opinion

[Mcrafty1]

Cat has a MAN engine international cab the only thing cat is the automatic transmission.

I didn't realize that...as guess they are just as much a mongrel as today's Macks then.

[41180]

1986 ? We had a 98 CL with with all Mack parts e7 454 engine 18 spd Mack transmission 50 k lb Mack rears 100 percent mack

[Dirtymilkman]

My Titan is still Mack tranny, Mack rears, Mack cab, you can get Mack camelback but I have "Mack" airride. Now that is still quite a bit mack even if the motor is Volvo. But, guys even had superliners with detroits back in the day. Mack isn't dead yet.

[Mcrafty1]

1986 ? We had a 98 CL with with all Mack parts e7 454 engine 18 spd Mack transmission 50 k lb Mack rears 100 percent mack

In 98 it was a Mack/Renault.....I believe it was 1986 when Renault first invested in Mack and in (as you see in this article) bought out the entire corporation in July of 1990.

Renault Seeks All of Mack Trucks By KEITH BRADSHER Published: July 7, 1990

Mack Trucks Inc., an ailing company that still bears the most famous name in American truck making, announced yesterday that it had received a $100 million takeover bid from Renault, the French state-owned maker of autos and trucks.

Renault, which already owns 44.6 percent of Mack's stock and holds convertible bonds and warrants that could raise its stake to 61.1 percent, said the bid was necessary because of Mack's deteriorating finances. In a stagnant national market for trucks, Mack is stuck in the weakest segment and has high production costs.

Mack said yesterday that it expected to report a $90 million loss for the first half of the year and did not expect to become profitable before 1992. Mack's financial condition will probably fall short of three of the standards set by its bank lenders, the company said. As a result of that, Mack said, its lenders could declare the bank loans and other company debts to be in default.

Stock Posts a Gain

The Renault bid is $6 a share. Mack's shares rose $1.25 yesterday, to $6.50, and were the second most active on the over-the-counter market's active list, fed by speculation of a possible higher offer.

Elios Pascual, the executive vice president and general secretary of Renault's truck-making unit and a Mack board member, said Renault would pay for a rescue of Mack only if it owned the entire company.

''Restructuring completely, Mack is going to need a deep effort financially and operationally to cure these difficulties,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''We are not prepared to do that in the current shareholder position.''

The Mack stake is held by Renault Vehicules Industriels, the truck-making arm of Regie Nationale des Usines Renault.

Renault does not plan to change Mack's top management, which it installed last year after putting money into Mack, Mr. Pascual said. Ralph E. Reins, the current chairman, president and chief executive of Mack, was promoted into those positions during last year's changes.

Asked whether Renault planned to close one of Mack's three large truck-building plants, which are operating well below capacity, he replied: ''There are several ways to solve Mack's problems. One could be this, but there are others.''

The Mack board, which received the offer at a special meeting yesterday in Paris, named a special committee to consider it.

Any competing bid for Mack would be difficult to carry out because of Renault's large stake, said Steven J. Colbert, a capital equipment analyst at Prudential-Bache Securities. The most likely alternative bidders are two truck builders, the Navistar International Corporation, which makes International trucks, and Paccar Inc., which makes Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, he said.

Both companies would probably like to have Mack's construction-truck and garbage-truck businesses, and Paccar will need additional capacity within a couple of years, Mr. Colbert said. Both companies, however, are affected at present by the weak market for new trucks, and an acquisition of Mack would dilute either company's earnings for several years, he said.

Mr. Colbert put the odds of any higher bid emerging at ''50-50.''

Navistar declined to comment. Paccar said that it was not in negotiations with Mack or Renault.

Trucking companies have encountered slow growth and strong price competition this year, forcing them to cut back on orders of new trucks, analysts said. Mack has been particularly hard hit because of an especially deep slump in its main market, which is selling construction and other off-road trucks to buyers east of the Mississippi River, said Gary F. McManus, a truck manufacturing analyst for Merrill Lynch Research.

Slump in 18-Wheelers

Mack has also encountered great difficulty in regaining its former strength in the market for long-haul trucks for highway use, the 18-wheelers with which the company's name was long synonymous.

Mack recently spent $60 million and five years developing a new long-haul truck, the CH600. But the first trucks produced last spring had technical problems; the engines did not become available until September and proved expensive to produce.

The company has also run into trouble persuading trucking companies to break long traditions of relying on other vendors, Mr. McManus said. ''Some of their competitors have tried to protect their own turf,'' he said.

Mack lost $185.4 million on sales of $1.75 billion last year, in contrast to a profit of $31.8 million on sales of $2.1 billion in 1988.

Eroding Market Share

Mack has slowly lost market share and is now the fifth-largest company in the nation's $9 billion heavy-truck industry. Mack had 12.3 percent of the market in April, compared with 26 percent for Navistar; 20.3 percent for Paccar; 15.7 percent for the Freightliner Corporation, and 13.4 percent for a joint venture by Volvo and General Motors, Mr. Colbert said.

In a statement yesterday, Mack forecast that it would lose $130 million this year and would seek a long-term extension of a $350 million revolving credit agreement. These difficulties and the probable failure to meet the lenders' financial standards mean that ''Mack is now in very deep trouble,'' Mr. Pascual said.

Photos: Mack's new CH600 model heavy-duty truck, which took $60 million and five years to develop, had production difficulties and proved hard to sell to trucking companies that have long relied on other vendors. (Mack Trucks Inc.) (pg. 29); Ralph E. Reins is the chairman, president and chief executive of Mack Trucks Inc. (Jack Kausch) (pg. 31)

[kscarbel2]

In 98 it was a Mack/Renault

Mack Trucks was owned by Renault at that time. However the truck was still designed by Mack, as Renault allowed Mack to operate autonomously for the most part. In other words, the truck did not contain any Renault components (the U.S.-produced CM400 being a special case).

[Mcrafty1]

It still ceased to be a Mack 'Thoroughbred' the day Renault bailed the company out. The day the Mack corporation excepted Renault's buyout bid it sealed the deal.

[Underdog]

It still ceased to be a Mack 'Thoroughbred' the day Renault bailed the company out. The day the Mack corporation excepted Renault's buyout bid it sealed the deal.

Key word BAILOUT... just accept it for what it is... If Renault and subsequently Volvo didn't see value and INVEST in the Mack name, The Bulldog brand would have been gone already.

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[kscarbel2]

I again say, Mack should still be an American company.

The U.S. Department of Justice should NOT have approved Volvo's purchase of Mack.

Rather, the U.S. government should have supported Mack's survival, just as it has the Big 3 automakers for years.

If the Big 3, and the banks on Wall Street, are "too big to fail", then why not America's truck industry that carries our economy on its back 24/7 ?

I will say, Renault respected Mack Trucks for the capable company it was, and allowed Mack to operate with a high degree of autonomy. Renault wanted Mack Trucks to prosper in its own right.

Volvo, on the other hand, wanted to acquire market share in the U.S. market. Mack was yet another stepping stone for the Swedish truckmaker in the U.S., like Autocar, GMC and White, a means to an end goal of finally finding significant success for Volvo in America's truck market.

[Mcrafty1]

Key word BAILOUT... just accept it for what it is... If Renault and subsequently Volvo didn't see value and INVEST in the Mack name, The Bulldog brand would have been gone already.

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Hey friend, I don't care how you reason it out in your mind....what ever works for ya. This is a blog of opinions, you have mine. I respect yours, but it don't change mine.

[Wobblin-Goblin]

I again say, Mack should still be an American company.

The U.S. Department of Justice should NOT have approved Volvo's purchase of Mack.

Rather, the U.S. government should have supported Mack's survival, just as it has the Big 3 automakers for years.

If the Big 3, and the banks on Wall Street, are "too big to fail", then why not America's truck industry that carries our economy on its back 24/7 ?

I will say, Renault respected Mack Trucks for the capable company it was, and allowed Mack to operate with a high degree of autonomy. Renault wanted Mack Trucks to prosper in its own right.

Volvo, on the other hand, wanted to acquire market share in the U.S. market. Mack was yet another stepping stone for the Swedish truckmaker in the U.S., like Autocar, GMC and White, a means to an end goal of finally finding significant success for Volvo in America's truck market.

While I have always liked Mack, let's not kid ourselves, Mack did the same thing with other brands. Take Brockway for instance.

[Underdog]

I'm just a dumb truck driver... I try not to get involved in the politics of the truck industry. Yes I know Mack is not the truck it used to be, but neither are any of the other brands. New trucks in general basically suck no matter what you buy. I own two old Macks, I don't think I would buy any truck newer than model year 2000. My current job I Drive a 2015 Volvo and its a decent truck. The new Macks and Volvos are no worse than any other plastic POS you can buy nowadays

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[Dirtymilkman]

So is a Kenlworth not a Kenworth because paccar owns them? Companies are gobbled up every day by other companies and passed around. What about when signal and garret had mack? Were they still a mack? KS is right Mack should've been kept American.

[Timmyb]

I had a purebred dog once, sold it to another bloke... Still a purebred dog!

Renault did well by Mack in my opinion. In fact they brought the Mack v8 to Europe by using it in their trucks. Renault respected Mack for what it was, a great manufacturer.

It's a great shame I can't the same thing about Volvo.