RoadwayR

Yes, in the event that Brazil's economy does improve. But regardless of that, I don't see GM actually manufacturing commercial trucks in Brazil. I am thinking GM markets Isuzu trucks through their dealer network in Brazil.

I wonder if GM would ever get back into commercial trucks in Brazil. I doubt there is a sound business case for it at the moment, but at some point there could be for an Isuzu re-badge. GM sells Isuzu's in Chile, and Isuzu is not active in Brazil.

Oh yeah, that was an experimental high fuel efficiency deal:

Yellow had a lot of 8500 single axle city tractors, but all the ones I ever saw were short nose with the sloped hood.

Interesting. Freightliner was using Powertrain Integration's 8.0L propane engine. PSI took Powertrain Integration over sometime ago, perhaps they are streamlining their engine offerings. In any event, both the PSI 8.8L and the P.I. 8.0L are based on the old 'Big Block' Chevy V-8. The PSI 8.8L is also available in CNG and gasoline fueled versions.

It sounds like they put bigger tires on the F-550 and called it a day. GVW is about 2K#'s under the GM/NAV. But, that's the move I would have made. I have a feeling the F-600 will be a hit, and will eat F-650 sales.

That is about the truck Isuzu was contemplating bringing to the U.S., wasn't it? Maybe Isuzu will reconsider.

There are discussions of these photos on some Ford enthusiast websites, and the consensus is that the vehicle is a chassis development mule, and the modified Ranger body components are just used to make it drive-able. The Bronco will look nothing like that.

Didn't Wabco just buy G.E.'s locomotive operation?

Back to Brazil, things are going great for Traton: https://www.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-traton-results/vws-traton-gets-2018-profit-boost-from-brazil-higher-sales-idUSL5N20K3VC Probably be even better with Ford out of the picture.

Story was the Bighorn was his doing. Maybe the Diamond Reo Raider too! I think his son runs Spartan now.

Stab in the dark time: I seem to remember that Dodge had a resident heavy truck genius engineer and I think his last name was Sztykiel. If so, wasn't he one of the guys that started Spartan in the 70's?

Dealers? Mack has dealers?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-southamerica-heavytruck/ford-exiting-heavy-truck-business-in-south-america-idUSKCN1Q82EB That's a disappointment. While I don't believe there is any chance we will ever see the Ford-Otosan commercial trucks in the U.S., I thought the Brazilian-built medium duty Cargo would have been a great addition to Ford's North American commercial truck line-up. A Cargo with the new 7.3L gas engine would have been competitive with GM and Isuzu LCF's. In any event, Ford pulling out of Brazil is hardly a surprise.

We were told the 'excuse' for dropping the medium duty D series trucks was to make more motorhome chassis, but it probably had more to do with Chrysler's financial health and the fact they were dropping the B/RB V-8's in 1978. The D series mediums continued in Mexico as we have discussed here before. Heavy truck production for domestic sales ended in March of 1975. The excuse for that move was Chrysler didn't want to spend the money to meet FMVSS 121 (truck anti-lock brake standards), but I was told the Bighorn 900 did in fact have Bendix ABS. Another reason could have been cabs. Chrysler was having a hard time building enough truck cabs in the mid-70's after the 'Club Cab' Dodge pickup became such a success. Chrysler farmed out production of the old 'C' series cab to Checker Motors (taxi cab builder), but Checker had trouble keeping up with demand and quality wasn't too good (funny because Checker had been making pickup truck beds for GM for years). Couple this all with the weak dealer network and the result was no surprise. But what if Chrysler had bought Mack back in '64............