"Truck Talk" (Talking the truck industry)

[kscarbel2]

With a market share floating between 36% and 40%, foreign aggressor Daimler's Freightliner brand has come to dominate America's on-highway and medium-duty truck segments.

(With the combined sales of its Freightliner and Western Star brands, Daimler has a 48% Class 8 market share in the US. Throw in Volvo and Mack brand market share of 8% and 5% respectively, we sadly see that foreign truckmakers control 61% of the US truck market.)

And yet, try as they might, the brand has failed to get anywhere in vocational. The premium 122SD is a rare sight on the roads, and sales of the cheap 114SD are limited to such entities as municipalities and power companies who are buying purely on price.

Realizing their inability to find sales success with Freightliner-branded Class 8 vocational, the Germans have put more emphasis on their Western Star brand in recent years. However, though we are seeing greater sales, that success remains limited with a very small market share around 2.4%. I don't think Western Star in the states will ever be a large player. Daimler needs to "finally" find a successful formula for Western Star, or pull the plug.

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[Hayseed]

1 hour ago, kscarbel2 said:

Daimler needs to "finally" find a successful formula for Western Star,

Start building them to a Standard & not a price would be good start.. In my opinion.

Either that or sell it back to Terry Peabody. He knew what it took to build a Great truck..

[Maxidyne]

A lot of those Western Star sales are "low bid" sales to governments too. Also seeing a lot of Western Stars as well as Freightliner M2s at upfitters like TeleElect too, could be that they're low bidders there too. That said, being able to supply a fleet with everything from compact cars to Western Star heavy haul trucks is an advantage in the marketplace that Navistar, Volvo, and Paccar don't have.

[kscarbel2]

I have yet to see a single Chevrolet 4500HD/5500HD/6500HD Silverado on the road, or the equivalent Navistar CV (the unattractive Chevrolet version would be hard to miss). We know these trucks entered production in December 2018, and body builders reported getting some in January. Where are the trucks?

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/51205-chevrolet-class-456-silverado/?page=4

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/54774-international-extends-commercial-truck-lineup-with-class-4-6-cv-series/?tab=comments#comment-409083

 

[hurstscrambler]

I saw a Chevy 4500 or 5500 last week, just as a cab and chassis.  You nailed it, hard to miss being that ugly.  Andy

[Red Horse]

Just got back from driving through an Altech installation facility here in Lancaster MA.  Small facility with I think like no more than six installation bays.  They must have around 75 new F-550 (mostly Power Strokes and all white) in the yard and ONE 5500 Ram.  thought by now the new GM/Navistars in 4500/5500 range would be showing up but not the case.  As for class 7 and 8's Mostly F'liners with a large number of Internationals.  Even a few KW's and Western stars.

Interesting that there were always F-750's there in the old days when you could get a Cummins or a Cat in them with an  Allison.  No doubt the utility industry does NOT think a lot of the new 750 Power Stroke/ Torque shift combo in the  higher weight classes.

Class 5?  Ford continues to rule-at least by what you see in this Altech yard

[kscarbel2]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this now.

Speaking of Western Star's 2.4 percent market share, I can easily imagine Autocar scarfing up the majority of that with its new conventional (bonneted) cab line-up.

[james j neiweem]

A lot of market share to be had between Paccar, Daimler, Navistar and VolMack.

[kscarbel2]

This is how a truckmaker wastes their sales marketing budget.

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[Red Horse]

12 minutes ago, kscarbel2 said:

This is how a truckmaker wastes their sales marketing budget.

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FOR SURE!

[kscarbel2]

The Navistar dealers are upset because they haven't gotten any CVs in yet. There was an agreement that Chevrolet dealers would get trucks first.....and that's a lot of trucks to provide before the first Navistar badged unit can roll off the line.