RoadwayR

Needed to happen, sorry to say. Staying in that kind of market which required heavy investment while earning little or no profit is just the kind of mistake the old GM had made time and time again.

Nice, but those guys can't go on selling Hemi powered muscle cars and Jeeps forever.

In retrospect as far as Cat and NAV were concerned, SCR was clearly the way to go, not massive amounts of EGR. A Cat 3406/C-15 with SCR would probably not be any more reliable than anything else out there today. Didn't we see the C-15 with SCR briefly in that Caterpillar truck?

Yeah, what was that all about? For a minute there in the early 90's it looked like Ford was going to buy Cummins and with the HN80 make a very serious effort in class 7/8. Then without warning the whole HN80 program was given to Freightliner, they baled on Cummins, and the remnant of medium they held on to (F Series) was sent to Mexico and the option list was severely curtailed. Something sure changed Ford's mind. While this was all going on, there were rumors that the B5.9 was going into the F-250 and 350. Like many, I was a fan of the 5.9 but not of the 1972 Dodge pickup in came in (good truck in it's day). I was ready to go to Don Kott Ford in Carson with a sizeable down payment the moment the 5.9 option was announced for the F-350. Needless to say that never happened, though the 5.9 went into the F series mediums. In retrospect Ford should have sold the old Louisville until they needed KTP for the Super Duty, and never bothered with the HN80. I thought the HN80 had some clever features, but was a pretty poor execution. Freightliner spent a lot of money trying to straighten out that truck, but even with that it never had a reputation beyond 'cheap fleet'. It's amazing, but I think I still see more old Louisville's on the road than HN80's these days. i wonder whatever happened to that HN80 'long nose' prototype Ford built. Yeah, "Together We Will Run The Country"..........

Speaking of the Cummins ISB 6.7, I would not be surprised if Freightliner starts really pushing their mid-range DD's and eventually drops Cummins from their medium duty line (again).

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Spartan start off by making just the chassis for custom fire apparatus? When did they start building the whole thing? See quite a few of them out in Riverside CA..

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/automotive/spartan-motors-changes-business-model-55-million-sale-emergency-vehicles-segment

I agree that the offer is a bit light. Might sound good now, but when the cyclical truck market goes up a bit..... Never know, it might spur a competitive offer from someone else.

Looks nice. I would offer the PSI 8.8L gasoline/LPG engine as an option, along with the ISL-G if it would fit.

We ran a few 7.8L's. They were quiet and smooth, but didn't make a lot of power and were not particularly fuel efficient. In an F series with an alligator hood they were very difficult to service, tilt hood a little better. F series even had a little removable doghouse under the dash so you could get the valve cover off. Quite large and heavy for their displacement and output. Ours were pretty reliable, but seemed to leak a bit (particularly the oil coolers). Parts were expensive and not to easy to get even when they were in production! In almost every respect (except for noise level!) the Cummins 5.9L 'B' was better than the 6.6L, and the 8.3L 'C' was better than the 7.8L. The Cargo came to the U.S. in 1986 with the FNH, not a surprise since both engine and truck were made in Brazil. In the late 80's Ford needed new diesels for the F and smaller L series trucks, as the Detroit 8.2L and Cat 3208 were going out of production. The FNH was a good solution as the engine was already in the U.S., so basically the 6.6 replaced the Detroit and the 7.8 replaced the Cat in the F and L (C series was going away in 1990). I think Ford looked at the FNH as a short-term solution as it was going to have trouble with the new EPA regulations and New Holland was going to be sold. I do remember hearing that Ford was experimenting with an FNH diesel with HEUI injection, but I think the Cummins solution was cheap and easy. Right around the time Ford started using Cummins engines in their medium duty trucks was when Ford started buying Cummins shares, and that lead to speculation that Ford was going to buy Cummins outright and start using the B5.9 in F series pickups. I knew guys that were waiting for that to happen........

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/manufacturing/vw-wants-buy-rest-navistar-29-billion Interesting, didn't think it would have come so soon. Then again, with NAV shares trading low......

Would be less than the Chevy because the Chevy/IH is diesel only at present. We have 2 good Chevy commercial dealers but I agree, Chevy needs more truck dealers. I tend to think Springfield would have had to lay off more assembly workers if it wasn't for the Chevy medium/CV being in production.

Pricing was very competitive. Noting that all commercial vehicle sales around here are down.

I wish Isuzu would expand their model lineup here in the U.S.. Granted a lot of the models they sell in Australia are niche trucks, but I think some of those specialized trucks would be great in the municipal/utility sector. 4X4 and crew cab F series trucks would find a few buyers.

Nice, but won't fly here. NFPA 1901 ........

I think the Bronco will be a big hit. I wonder what will happen to Ford medium duty (specifically the 650 and 750) after 2023 when the Avon Lake plant changes over to BEV production.

That proposed deal caught me by surprise, at the time there was hinting around that GM was going to do something with Isuzu. The GM deal came while NAV was building the F-650 and 750 for Ford through their Blue Diamond subsidiary, and perhaps more significantly while NAV and Ford were having quite a falling out over the VT365/6.0L Powerstroke fiasco and Ford's abrupt cancellation of the 4.5L V-6 Powerstroke for the F-150. I was told NAV was at least a little motivated to screw Ford to an extent by building GM's medium trucks and closing Blue Diamond as quickly as possible. The (first) GM/NAV deal reportedly fell through because GM and NAV couldn't agree on a price for the operation, but I think NAV's financial position was rapidly deteriorating and with the worsening economy NAV got nervous. After the NAV deal fell through, I once again started hearing rumors about GM and Isuzu. Remember that GM was assembling many Isuzu trucks (gasoline powered N's and the F series) at the time. Isuzu had purchased land (Alabama?) for a U.S. plant to take over N/F series production after GM was to sell their medium/heavy truck operation to NAV, and there was supposedly some talk that the new Isuzu plant could build the GM trucks after the GM/NAV deal fell through. However, once again the worsening economy caused Isuzu to reconsider opening a U.S. plant. In late 2009 GM dropped the GMT560 trucks and (temporarily) exited the medium duty truck market. Very soon after that, an insider told me that a GM/NAV deal was not at all dead, but was put on indefinite hold until the economy improved and would be revisited. If you talk to anyone at GM or NAV these days, the official word is the new JV medium trucks are a great success. It seems to have been a slow launch, but reports on the trucks are favorable (my employer had taken delivery of a few, I will let you know....). I am hearing rumors that more GM/NAV JV trucks may be under development.

Isuzu has an incredible model range in Australia. Literally a model for any conceivable application.

Funny that Ram uses a ZF 8 speed (the basis for the PowerLine 8?) in gas powered Rams, but the diesels get 6 speed Chrysler or Aisian boxes.

Ford is not going back into that segment.

Interesting, but not unexpected. Muhlhauser's comment about being a consolidator or consolidatee is wise, and shows that Iveco is flexible. I wonder about the Asian truck builders too. Volvo's sale of UD to Isuzu seems to be a step backward, and I really don't think the Japanese builders are all that eager to consolidate with any American or European builders. Isuzu's on again-off again relationship with GM is about as far as I see any of that going for the foreseeable future. China is anyone's guess at this point.

Strategic alliance with Isuzu? That would be interesting.

Eliminate a competitor, pick up some volume, keep UD out of Chinese hands.

Well that's a bit of a surprise. Or is it? I think UD could have been a big asset for Volvo as a design and manufacturing center for medium duty trucks and components, something that Volvo sorley needs in North America. But in the end, I think Volvo just didn't know what to do with UD. What was the point of owning UD if they were not going to integrate into Volvo's truck operations?

Chinese trucks are in the U.S. now, to a certain extent. I am starting to see a few Greenkraft LCF's, basically a JAC with a GM/PSI CNG engine transplant. The little class 5 is a hoot, sort of a previous generation Isuzu clone, but with air brakes! Saw one of their larger class 6 models last week.