Red Horse

Unfortunately, I'm afraid you are correct. And it is obvious that you are not a newcomer to the field-and most importantly have a passion for the subject-as evidenced by the time you take to offer opinions on this site. But I can say, in the typical dealership, how many sales reps have a clue regarding any truck beyond a 150?? And regarding your comment on Ford listening more to researchers than the people in the field who day after day interact with the customer, how screwed up is that. Nothing like a balanced approach. And how many Ford people do you interact with that it could be said are career truck people with a true passion for their work? My bet not many. Instead they are people who have bounced from job to job under the guise of "career development". Navistar? PACCAR? F'liner? They are truck guys with no thought that their next assignment will be outside their world of trucks.

Many on this site as well as the BON site share that opinion. When you are late to the party however, I wonder if you can afford that kind of strategy.

Kevin, Check out January HDT. Big teaser ad from Hino announcing new class 7 and 8 's with tandem axle-shot of a tandem chassis-back of cab so no clue if its conventional or cabover. Says wait til Work Truck Show in March.

JB-You work in a dealership. what is the sentiment of your owners and the dealer network in general? They have to see what you are talking about. I missed his comment you referred to about ..."taking back the streets from cars", but unbelievable. I'm having nightmares! Jac the Knife is back with more dumb ass ideas. I had faith in Bill Ford. The fact he picked this guy gives me second thoughts about all my ford shares.

Kevin- Hear you on the E-550. Dealer friend of mine was really pissed when they dropped it. He had converted a lot of customers to the truck and was enjoying repeat sales. As for the utilities, I do see some 5500 Dodge buckets running around these parts but there is an Altech facility in next town over. Their yard is always full of chassis awaiting installs. There are probably 100 or more Fords there now and a few -5??- Dodges. As for big trucks-(class7,8) virtually all F'liners with a few Internationals and an occasional PACCAR. Have not seen a Ford since Blue Diamond shut down. And there are plenty of utility co. 750's in service around here but they all Bluediamonds. What's changed? The failure of Ford to offer something other than the 6.7Powerstroke-Torqueshift IMO

Here you go January Heavy Duty Trucking class 3-4-5 Units YTD 11 MOS. Market Share Dodge 156,773 42.3% Ford 131,410 35.45% By the way. In addition to being a "Mack guy", I'm a "Ford guy" too. If you don't believe the numbers, take it up with HDT

Look again- TT article groups 5, 6, 7. HDT groups 3,4,5 and Dodge is the leader-and has been for a quite a few months

Well in 3-4 and 5 its Dodge by a bit over Ford. As for 6,5 and 4, might be Ford but their class 6 sales were very high early in the year-I think they had a huge order for gas 650's from U-Haul- plus even UPS bought some. When the new JV Chevy/Internationals hit the market soon in class 4 and 5 the going is going to get tougher. IMO, Ford needs another diesel option beside the Power Stroke/Torque shift (I think a lot of people still have a bad taste from the 6.9/6.4) plus a lot of people just don't like V-8 diesels. As for gas, they are the only game in town in a conventional in class 6 and 7 but again the 6.8 V-10 is a bit small. rumor has it they will soon have a 7.3 V-8 gasoline and that will be a big help.

The new Ford CEO IMO should go back to selling office furniture-or to California and he can join his Silicon Valley Hi tech friends who are hi jacking the automotive industry with their push for autonomous vehicles. This jerk is making a push to cut engineering positions and component costs. As a Ford stockholder I say great. But when you look at Ford's recall history of late, does that suggest you can cut engineering? Or push suppliers for cheaper components?? Something doesn't foot. This guy is no Alan Mulaly.

Truck Shop... ever do one with spokes?

Inline 6 diesel. That should have Ford and Ram looking over their shoulder.

My guess? New cup holders jn the 750. But I would hope for info on the new gas engine that is rumored to be a 7.3 liter to replace the 6.8 V-10. and if they were really smart, they would offer either a 6 cylinder Cummins or their own Duratorque that they build inTurkey-with an Allison.

Interesting to see if the International.."ultimate work truck" is their version of the Chevy they will be building for GM. As for Hino, how about it Kevin-you betting on two new cab overs? Does Hino build a larger conventional cab in Japan? Larger that is than the 338 class 7 they offer here.

Wise move. From everything I've been reading the 5.0 makes the most sense to me. I have an Ecoboost SHO. Great motor and I get good mileage. But when they put it in a truck, as I saw one guy post on the Ford site..It should be called.."Eco or Boost", because when you pull a lot and have your foot in it, it is thirsty. As for the 6.7 Power Stroke, again-good motor but in my mind, unless you are pulling a heavyn trailer all the time, hard to justify the upfront cost.

Well here in Mass. they are closing the Burlington store-which is in a very upscale complex. Still have two stores that are within 10 miles of me in opposite directions. Went in one just before Christmas to get some tools for my sons and was surprised by the empty floor space. They have really cleaned house-figured the store was next on the cut list but it survived-this round. But to show you how screwed up they are-I always look for "Made in USA" labels. Found some stuff-including tin snips- they had some under "Craftsman" label and exact same ones with the "OEM" brand!

See if this works- another view that has been worked over to give a better look; https://www.autoblog.com/2018/01/08/chevy-silverado-4500-5500-medium-duty-commercial-truck/

Hah- got yah beat -2004 Ranger- and all of my Carhartts are stained, threadbare, and were made in the USA!

agree 100%. They are so driven by the average transaction price (ATP) issue that any chance they get they try to link options up. And no availability in essence in a true work truck-standard cab and base trim levels. Beyond the ATP issue, this says...."We have built a very nice yuppie vehicle so you can take your two plastic bags to the "transfer station" once a week while wearing your designer Carhartts (Made in China). Now for you guys who want to throw a 100 gallon fuel transfer tank in the back of your truck, which happens to be a "plain jane" spec-sorry. Unless "Maxidyne" is correct and qualifying for "fleet status" is just a formality that a dealer can waive and the self employed one truck guy can qualify.

Shocker for sure. Did not know him well but went to an open house he had a couple of years ago. Kind of guy who made everyone feel welcome. And obviously very knowledgeable. RIP

Thx Kevin-but still no specifics in terms of order of finish. I have to say though that a 4 cylinder with those power ratings sounds good.

ah-and just what constitutes "careful engagement"? And "careful engagement" militarily by a third world country?? Like .. "we promise China to never launch a strike against you with our P-51 Mustangs"". In the meantime nothing we have is sacred from a design perspective and from an environmental perspective, oh yeah-we have put much of our own industry out of business with our tough environmental regs while China looks the other way - but does every now and then slap someone on the wrist. I do believe though, nothing like pond reared catfish fed by chickens who "free range" above the ponds on wire mesh!

Like I said-what negotiating power do we have left? Its like our industrial base gave no thought to just who they were jumping in bed with. The only thing that mattered was "getting the job done for least cost". Irwin tools? Vise Grip? Yeah-packaging says.."engineered in America" And Kevin- I hear you. But fact remains-cut off petroleum supply. and how long does the loon last? And there can be NO military option unless you want to kill a few million So. Koreans. Complete isolation of the North Koreans is the only thing that hopefully will bring about a change.

In any case, I have to believe that China for sure holds the key to keeping the loon in North Korea in power. In spite of all the sanctions that have been imposed we now see confirmation that China is lightering tankers at sea so oil ends up going to North Korea. When will we wake up to the fact that China can't be trusted. Yet we continue to give them increasing stakes in all phases of our industrial base. What negotiating power do we have left?? Boycott Chinese goods? We could-but that would mean the end of Walmart! Here's a good thought-maybe Tillerson and Mattis should have to approve any commercial venture involving China

Beautiful! Makes the Bulldog sit a little lower on the hood! The one thing I wish Ford had NOT sold was Volvo.

Hippy you have to give them a couple of close ups of your "wing"