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The M-Sport World Rally Team will be Attending the 2019 World Rally Championship Ford Trucks International / January 28, 2019 One of the world's leading rally teams, the M-Sport World Rally Team, will be attending the 2019 World Rally Championship, which starts this month in Monte Carlo, with the support of Ford Trucks and its new F-MAX tractor vehicle, winner of the “2019 International Truck of the Year” award. Ford Trucks Assistant CEO, Serhan Turfan, explains how Ford Trucks has been supporting global motor sports: “As an international manufacturer, we invest in and support motorsports. As part of this, we are extremely proud to support M-Sport, a team which has been dominating rally circuits for 21 years, with our new award-winning F-MAX tractor vehicle. The countdown to the 2019 World Rally Championship (WRC) season's opening race in Monte Carlo has begun. Rally Monte Carlo will take place 24-27 January 2019, and Ford Trucks will be providing its new F-MAX tractor vehicle, winner of the “2019 International Truck of the Year (ITOY)” award, to support the M-Sport World Rally Team. The 2019 World Rally Championship is a gruelling series of 14 races which gets underway on 24 January in Monte Carlo, with Rally Sweden following on 14 February. With rallies set to take place in Mexico, France, Argentina, Chile, Portugal and Italy in the first half of the year, the 2019 WRC season will resume after the summer break with Rally Finland on 04 August. After Rally Germany on 22 August, Rally Turkey will take place 12-15 September 2019. After races in Great Britain and Spain, the season comes to an end with Rally Australia in November. The contract between M-Sport World Rally Team and Ford Trucks was signed in September last year, and the new F-MAX tractor vehicle, winner of the “2019 International Truck of the Year (ITOY)” award, will support the M-Sport team during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. “We’ll provide our new F-MAX tractor vehicle, winner of the “2019 International Truck of the Year” award” Explaining that Ford Trucks supports motor sports across the globe, Ford Trucks Assistant CEO, Serhan Turfan, went on to say: "Ford Trucks is one of the largest manufactures in the international heavy commercial vehicles market, and we bring together 60 years of truck-building experience with our ability to develop products which meet the needs of the market. As we continue to grow in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, as an international brand, we also invest in and support motorsports. In this scope, our first partnership was with the Ford GT racing team at the FIA World Endurance Championship, and we've been supporting them for the past three years. During this partnership, four of our vehicles have been used to provide transport services t o Ford GT during the championship. VDR Trucks Racing is another rally team we’ve supported. They raced a Ford Trucks vehicle for the first time at the 2019 Dakar Rally. We’re continuing to support motor sports through the contract signed with M-Sport last September. Ford Trucks will support the M-Sport World Rally Team with our new F-MAX tractor vehicle, winner of the “2019 International Truck of the Year (ITOY)” award. We’re incredibly proud to be supporting a team as successful as this. We thank M-Sport for choosing the F-MAX, and we wish them every success at the World Rally Championship. 2019 World Rally Championship calendar: 24 January Rally Monte Carlo 14 February Rally Sweden 07 March Rally Mexico 28 March Rally France 25 April Rally Argentina 09 May Rally Chile 30 May Rally Portugal 13 June Rally Italy 01 August Rally Finland 22 August Rally Germany 12 September Rally Turkey 03 September Rally Great Britain 24 September Rally Spain 14 November Rally Australia

How are you enjoying Jamaica, Mark? Thanks for the tour of your new Gulfstream in Rio. Very impressive. I think that was the best BMT Investors conference to date.

Ford Trucks International / January 28, 2019 In Romania, Ford Trucks is proudly handing CNAIR the keys to 103 new Ford trucks! We're looking forward to working together! #SharingTheLoad .

Dodge puts luxury to work in HD pickup Vince Bond Jr. & Michael Wayland, Automotive News / January 28, 2019 DETROIT — Luxury in the heavy-duty truck market is no longer just a seat belt. The upscaling of heavy-duty interiors has been gradual, with some pointing to Ford's first Super Duty King Ranch entry and its leather-laced cabin in the early 2000s as a turning point for the powerful hauling class. Now Ram is looking to raise the luxury bar again in what has traditionally been seen as the rugged workingman's segment. Ram believes the ample leather and wood and the 12-inch touch screen option that it added to the overhauled interiors of its upcoming 2019 heavy-duty lineup will be a welcome touch of refinement to buyers who want more than a work truck. These are the consumers who are towing luxury items worth much more than the trucks themselves, including huge campers or horse trailers, said Reid Bigland, head of the Ram brand. Bigland said Ram has "fundamentally lifted" the award-winning interior from the smaller 1500 and transplanted it into its strongest haulers. Still, Ram didn't forget about the segment's work-driven calling card. Bigland said during a December briefing that Ram realizes heavy-duty trucks can't get by on looks and creature comforts alone. The brand also made sure to up the performance ante, which is highlighted by the 1,000 pound-feet of torque generated by the Ram 3500's new 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine, a milestone for the segment. Together, the technology, powertrain, design and luxury improvements to the light- and heavy-duty trucks represent Ram's effort to shake up a full-size pickup market that's driven heavily by brand loyalty. Ram, a perennial No. 3 among the Detroit automakers, sees a chance to close the gap with General Motors' Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, which combine for second place, while Ford's No. 1 F series gallops ahead. "We think we're really raising the bar across the board," Bigland said on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show. "When you look at the technology, the 12-inch touch screen, the level of refinement on the interior, the level of luxury coupled with that capability. We think we have all of the bases covered. We'd like to think we're in a league of our own." Ram packed its beasts with the latest infotainment gadgets, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with an available Harman Kardon audio system with 17 speakers. The brand also rolled out a 360-degree camera system that provides a simulated bird's-eye view. Ram says a reverse guidance camera view shows both sides of a trailer to help drivers with towing maneuvers. "Ram has done an amazing job at building capable, comfortable trucks that also can have a certain level of luxury," said Brian Moody, executive editor of Autotrader. "If GMC is not careful, Ram may end up taking their spot as a luxury truck." The infusion of more high-end materials and technology is a response to the changing needs of heavy-duty customers who have grown accustomed to these things in other vehicles, says Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at IHS Markit. She believes some of the buyers of the loaded trims may turn out to be company bosses who don't haul as much they used to, but still drive them to work sites. "Offering the better interior materials and more technology to the heavy-duty buyer simply reflects the fact that people expect more from their interiors than they used to," Brinley said. "And the heavy-duty buyer, even though he's using it as a work truck, they've gotten used to technology being in the cars, and they want it in their truck, too." Don Lee, a Ram dealer in Maine, said the added luxury brings more versatility to the heavy-duty lineup. "I can see a situation where a heavy-duty owner would step up and buy a more luxurious vehicle, a more comfortable vehicle, so he can continue to use his vehicle on his personal time as well as enjoy some of these additional features and luxuries during the workweek," said Lee, president of Lee Auto Malls. Competition will continue to be fierce. GMC just revealed the 2020 Sierra 2500HD and 3500HD, which will come with a versatile tailgate, large head-up display and advanced trailering system with an app, among other features. Its 6.6-liter Duramax diesel model falls short of Ram's 6.7-liter Cummins diesel at 910 pound-feet of torque. Duncan Aldred, vice president of GMC, told media ahead of the vehicle's unveiling last week that the Sierra HD is "the crown jewel" of the company's lineup. And the Chevrolet Silverado HD, expected to debut in February, will enter the segment with a redesign that differentiates it from the smaller 1500 and new trailering technology, the company said. .

Ford ready to do (and undo) what's needed to fix business Nick Bunkley, Automotive News / January 28, 2019 Structural cost increases ‘arrested' after 5-year surge DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. has moved from "thinking" to "doing," CEO Jim Hackett says. It's also undoing some of what happened under his predecessors, including product deferrals and more than $6 billion in structural cost increases since 2013. Hackett, whom Wall Street has criticized for moving too slowly as Ford's profits fell in 2018, said much of his first 20 months in the job was spent evaluating the business and forming the right plan. Now, he said, it's time to execute that plan. "For Ford, 2018 will be known as the year between the business that wasn't designed right and the business that we know will win," Hackett told analysts on a conference call to discuss the automaker's first quarterly loss in two years. "We have a clear vision, we have a solid plan and we are in execution mode." One of his most immediate priorities was to control fast-rising structural costs, including product development, engineering and vehicle launches. Hackett said those costs were increasing an average of $1.7 billion annually since 2013, a period covering the end of Alan Mulally's tenure as CEO and three years under Mark Fields before Hackett took over. Structural costs were flat in 2018, and Ford projects they'll stay that way in 2019. "We arrested that, and that didn't take us long," Hackett said. Even though Ford was spending more, its product-development process had become "constipated," he said, leaving the company without fresh offerings in the right segments. Hackett has directed Ford to spend more on the utility vehicles and pickups that generate virtually all of its profits today, while discontinuing low-margin or money-losing sedans in the U.S., among other changes. "When I look in hindsight, I wouldn't have traded some of the product deferrals that happened that caused some of the delays that we now are righting," Hackett said. "So as I go forward, I have to look in the mirror and say I'm going to be faced with moments of truth. I'm not going to starve product." Ford also will be able to demonstrate more progress by April, when Hackett said it will complete a reorganization of its salaried work force. Hackett said the effort is aimed at reducing the "levels and layers" of corporate bureaucracy. It will include an unspecified number of job cuts. New products, including the Ranger and redesigned Explorer, also should help after a lull during which Ford's U.S. market share declined, Morningstar analyst David Whiston said. "It's not only new product, it's really profitable, popular product," Whiston said. " But Wall Street's definitely become impatient with management continuing to say, 'Trust us.' The stock is lower than it was when Mark Fields was asked to leave." Ford is projecting improved financial results in 2019. Last week it said net income fell 52 percent in 2018, though revenue rose 2.2 percent. It lost $116 million in the fourth quarter. "It's not a year that we were happy with," CFO Bob Shanks said. Ford said tariffs and higher commodity costs added up to a $1.8 billion hit during the year, and it took an $877 million hit to pensions and other benefit funds when financial markets tumbled late in the year. Amid that volatility, Ford shares fell to a nine-year low. The bright spots were Ford Credit — its $2.6 billion profit was the best in eight years — and North America, the only geographic region that was profitable. Ford earned $7.6 billion in North America in 2018, 6 percent less than the prior year. It lost $2.2 billion in the rest of the world, with Asia Pacific accounting for half of the red ink. Most UAW members will get a profit-sharing payout in March of $7,600, which is $100 more than last year because of an accounting adjustment to 2017 results. In addition to the tariffs and higher commodity costs, Ford said it took charges totaling nearly $800 million tied to recalls of vehicles with defective Takata airbags and lost about $800 million related to foreign currency exchange. Combined, that's about $3.4 billion lost to factors that were entirely outside Ford's control, including $1.9 billion in North America, Shanks said. Yet North American profits declined by only $450 million — evidence of the progress Ford is making in that region, he said. "If you put those aside, North America actually advanced in the year," Shanks said. "That's extremely encouraging, because it is the foundation of the business." .

GM now top producer in Mexico as industry output declines Nick Bunkley, Automotive News / January 28, 2019 Mexico in 2018 accounted for more than a quarter of General Motors' estimated North American production for the first time, a proportion that will rise further if the company follows through with plans to end production at five plants in the U.S. and Canada this year. GM is now Mexico's largest auto producer, topping Nissan Motor Co. in a year when it reduced output by an estimated 5 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 33 percent in Canada. GM built 834,414 vehicles in Mexico last year, an increase of 3.6 percent, vs. a 10 percent decrease to an estimated 763,257 for Nissan, which had been No. 1. GM's higher Mexican output at a time when it's eliminating jobs in the U.S. has angered President Donald Trump and other politicians as well as union officials set to negotiate a new contract with the automaker this fall. "We want those cars here," says Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and former GM lobbyist. "That's why we have to support a public policy environment that encourages production in the U.S." Overall production in Mexico fell by 1 percent in 2018. That's the first time Mexico production has declined since automakers began opening a flurry of plants south of the U.S. border to take advantage of lower costs from nonunion labor and favorable trade agreements with overseas markets. But production in Mexico is expected to remain stable in the coming years, particularly now that the U.S., Canada and Mexico have signed a renegotiated free-trade agreement. Total North American production declined for a second consecutive year. Production was down an estimated 2.6 percent overall, including an estimated 2 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 8.8 percent in Canada. Just three automakers built more vehicles in the U.S. in 2018: Tesla, up 151 percent; Volkswagen Group, up an estimated 22 percent; and Honda Motor Co., up 2.7 percent. Ford remained the largest U.S. producer, building nearly 2.4 million vehicles domestically vs. about 2.1 million for GM. In Mexico, Toyota built 49 percent more Tacoma pickups in Tijuana, and Hyundai-Kia made 33 percent more small cars in Nuevo Leon. Besides those two and GM, the only other automaker to raise output in Mexico was Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — by 369 vehicles. Honda and Ford joined Nissan with double-digit cutbacks. A GM spokesman said the company hasn't added any capacity in Mexico for a decade and has no plans to do so. Its 2018 gain there stemmed from falling demand for GM's U.S.-made cars and surging popularity of crossovers such as the Mexico-made GMC Terrain and the Chevrolet Equinox, which is built in both Mexico and Canada. Production of the Equinox and Terrain in Mexico nearly doubled from 2017, but GM built 11 percent fewer pickups and 74 percent fewer cars in Mexico last year. Mexico represented an estimated 30.8 percent of GM's 2018 light-truck production and an estimated 25.7 percent of its total output in North America. Ford got 9.7 percent of its North American supply from Mexico but doesn't build any pickups, SUVs or crossovers there. GM is poised for another Mexico production increase in 2019 with the addition of the Chevy Blazer, which started coming off the Equinox line at its Ramos Arizpe plant in November. The decision to make the Blazer in Mexico — reached, company officials say, when sedan sales were higher and GM had less U.S. capacity to spare — has been a particularly sore spot for the UAW, which learned of it on the day GM reduced its Chevy Cruze plant in Lordstown, Ohio, to one daily shift. GM says it will end production in Lordstown after March 1, followed later in the year by assembly plants in Detroit and Oshawa, Ontario, and propulsion plants in Michigan and Maryland. Unifor, the Canadian union that represents Oshawa workers, last week blocked access to the headquarters of GM Canada in protest of the potential plant closure.

Yes sir......a 620 horsepower Scania V8.

Anyway, that's not a concrete pumper. This is a concrete pumper.......and it doesn't buck. 101 meter reach (331 feet). https://www.scania.com/global/en/home/products-and-services/trucks/industries/construction/concrete-pump.html .

Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) / January 18, 2019 More intelligent. More efficient. Safer. Volvo's new I-Shift comes with I-See software that memorizes a truck's route, automatically shifting the truck differently to save fuel on the next drive, allowing the driver to focus more on the road ahead. .

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Volvo's TerraPro (MRU) is NOT the first application of an AMT in a "cabover pumper", and an Allison would be better in this vocational application anyway. Why, in year 2019, is the driver (with something in her nose?) bouncing up and down as though she was riding a bronco. I haven't seen such in decades.

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January 26, 2019 Today in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo Trucks spokesperson Lena Larsson explains the environmental benefits of allowing both heavier and longer trucks. There is no indication that transport needs will decrease in future, which is why we need to work towards more efficient transport. Experimental activities show 20% of CO2 reductions. .

ABC News / January 27, 2019 Volunteer truck drivers have spent the weekend delivering donated hay to drought-stricken farmers in south-west Queensland. The Burrumbuttock Hay Runners loaded 180 trucks with donated hay, pet food, toys and first aid kits. A convoy of volunteers set off from Darlington Point in New South Wales to Quilpie in Queensland, arriving on Australia Day. Burrumbuttock Hay Runners founder Brendan Farrell said delivering the hay to farmers on Australia Day was fitting. "You can't be more Australian than helping someone you don't know," Mr Farrell said. Farmers in Quilpie, Thargomindah and Eulo were able to collect hay and fodder before attending a special Australia Day concert on Saturday night. The Burrumbuttock Hay Runners have been collecting donations of hay for 14 years and delivering it to the driest farming communities around NSW and Queensland. Mr Farrell said he was pleased that the convoy had a good, straight run to Quilpie. "We had a great day yesterday. A lot of trucks went out and there were a few going out this morning." "[The farmers] were over the moon, they were rapt," Mr Farrell said. More than 500 volunteers joined the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners convoy this year. Sandy Jones, from Leeton south-west NSW, uses her week of holidays from work to join the Hay Runners convoy. Mrs Jones and her husband have been involved for six years, donating a truck from their own business. "It's very addictive, once you do one you're in it forever," Mrs Jones said. Delivering hope as well as hay For volunteers of the Hay Run, the journey is not just about delivering supplies, but about looking after the mental health of struggling farmers. Mr Farrell said helping people that are in a lot of trouble is a very important part of the yearly hay run. "When [the truck drivers] came back last night there were a few teary-eyed truck drivers, it was very emotional for them," Mr Farrell said. Sandy Jones said volunteers keep in touch with struggling farmers that they have delivered supplies to. "Once you get home you drop them a call in a couple of weeks, or a letter or a postcard, to check that they're still doing ok," Mrs Jones said. "It's letting [farmers] know that someone is thinking about them." Mr Farrell said forming relationships between drought-stricken farmers and truck drivers could make a big difference to farmers' wellbeing. "It lifts them up for a long time. They can ring a truck driver in Bundaberg and have a chat to him and talk to somebody that's not in drought. Sometimes that's better than talking to your next-door neighbour that is in drought," Mr Farrell said. Mrs Jones said although the hay run could be emotional for volunteers and farmers, it was the small things that made it a happy journey. "You'll be out the back of Bourke and there will be little kids with homemade signs and balloons and they'll be waving. They've been sitting out there a couple of hours in the hot sun waiting for us to go past. It's fantastic," Mrs Jones said. 'We went to the moon' Volunteers on the convoy were confronted by endless stretches of dry farmland on their journey. "It's bad," Mrs Jones said of the conditions. "[Farmers] have been knocking over dead mulga trees for a few years now just so cattle can eat the tops of them." Mr Farrell described the farms as "barren dirt''. "I was talking to a truck driver last night and he said 'mate, we went to the moon'. There wasn't even a tree within two hours of the bloke's house in the middle of no-where." Mr Farrell said that the farmers were resilient, but they were doing it tough in hard conditions. "We've just got to remember that they're still out here, and not forget them." Hay from WA also reaches NSW on Australia Day Farmers in the Cobar region of central west NSW also received a hay delivery on Australia day. Forty-eight road trains, carrying more than 3,000 bales of hay and fodder set off from Western Australia earlier this week, organised by the not for profit group Farmers Across Borders, Hay From WA". The convoy hit a snag on day one when, as temperatures neared 50 degrees, a trailer full of hay and fodder caught alight and burnt to the ground near Madura on the Eyre Highway. Convoy organiser Sam Starcevich said the fire was a devastating loss, but she was determined to get the remainder of the stock feed to farmers who needed it. "If this does something to ease a little bit of pain for someone, then we've done what we wanted to achieve," she said. "I think we're going to help between 300 and 400 farmers once we get to Cobar." This is the second convoy of feed the group of volunteers and farmers have organised in recent years, many having experienced drought first-hand. "Emotionally, drought is something you never get over, personally," Mrs Starcevich said. "As soon as it doesn't rain you think 'oh my god is it going to happen again, is it not going to rain' so it's always something there in your mind." .

This is a United States congresswoman? The folks in Minnesota intentionally and overwhelmingly voted for.....her? The state of the union is dire.

Associated Press / January 26, 2019 Congressional freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., once asked a judge to show leniency toward a group of Minnesota men accused of trying to join the Islamic State terror group. “The best deterrent to fanaticism is a system of compassion," she wrote at the time. "We must alter our attitude and approach; if we truly want to effect change, we should refocus our efforts on inclusion and rehabilitation." The nine Minnesota men were facing decades in prison after being accused in 2015 of making plans, including buying fake passports, in an effort to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS, which was at its peak level of activity and held territory in Syria and Iraq. Omar, who was then a Minnesota state representative, was part of a group that sent letters to Judge Michael Davis urging him to give shorter sentences, arguing that harsher penalties would only lead to more people joining the terror group. “Incarcerating 20-year-old men for 30 or 40 years is essentially a life sentence. Society will have no expectations of the to-be 50- or 60-year-old released prisoners; it will view them with distrust and revulsion,” read Omar’s letter to the judge. “Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment,” she added. Omar’s letter seeking more lenient sentences resurfaced on social media amid criticism over her attack on Sen. Lindsey Graham, Covington Catholic High School students, and the endorsement of socialist Venezuelan dictatorship. One of the men in particular, Abdirahman Yasin Daud, was facing over 30 years in prison for trying to join the terrorist group. He admitted in court that he wasn’t trying to enter Syria on humanitarian grounds, but rather to participate in the activities of ISIS. “I was not going there to pass out medical kits or food. I was going strictly to fight and kill on behalf of the Islamic State,” he said. But Omar told the judge that the best way counter extremism was with empathy rather than punishment. “A long-term prison sentence for one who chose violence to combat direct marginalization is a statement that our justice system misunderstands the guilty. A restorative approach to justice assesses the lure of criminality and addresses it.” Almost all the men on trial received lengthy sentences, with Daud serving 30 years in prison after he was found guilty of trying to provide material support to ISIS and conspiring to commit murder overseas. .

Ford details customer rewards program Michael Martinez, Automotive News / January 26, 2019 All but four of Ford Motor Co.'s roughly 3,100 U.S. dealers have signed up for a points-based customer rewards program through the FordPass app that will roll out this year. The automaker last year announced vague plans for a future rewards program that's part of a larger focus on customer retention. Executives used their make meeting to reveal details about the program, which is expected to start as early as April. The rewards system will include complimentary maintenance, and customers who sign up will receive $210 in service credits at their dealership. Customers can accumulate points for certain actions, which can be transferred to other dealerships. Dealers were told Ford would cover the cost. "Dealers really get the importance of customer experience," Mark LaNeve, Ford's vice president of marketing, sales and service, told Automotive News. "This program will marry customers to the dealership." Todd Dyer, chairman of the Ford National Dealer Council, said he's happy with how the program helps build a relationship between the customer and dealer. "Consumers are going to come back to us for this," said Dyer, who owns Marshal Mize Ford in Hixson, Tenn. In addition to customer experience, the 90-minute meeting focused on improving dealer profits, which dropped in 2018 compared with 2017. To help increase those figures in 2019, Ford is tweaking its floorplan assistance as a way to offset rising interest rates. LaNeve noted that his presentation was virtually the same as that of Ford's dealer council chairman, a sign the factory and its retailers are on the same page. "I've done 30 of these," LaNeve said after the meeting. "I've never seen that kind of alignment." Dealers heard directly from Ford CEO Jim Hackett, who was attending his first NADA Show as CEO and vowed to sit down with more dealers and attend more meetings with them this year, a task he has typically delegated to other executives through his first 20 months on the job. Ford did not show dealers any photos of future product, although most saw the brand's upcoming models at some point last year after they had asked for more transparency. "I think our relationship is really, really strong," said Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of North America. "That's not an accident. It's a lot of work."

FCA recalls 182,000 Ram pickups for electrical issue Danielle Szatkowski, Automotive News / January 26, 2019 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is recalling more than 182,000 Ram pickups worldwide to repair an electrical issue related to the vehicles' power steering. The recall announced Friday involves about 178,829 vehicles in North America, including 159,740 in the U.S. A fastener that grounds the battery wasn't properly secured in 2019 Ram 1500 pickups. As a result, the connection can become loose and disable the powering steering. Drivers can still steer, but the unstable feedback may increase the risk of a crash. FCA said there have been no reports of crashes or injuries. The automaker did not state a date for the recall to begin, but under U.S. law, it has to start within 60 days. The Ram 1500 won North American Truck of the Year at the Detroit auto show this month, an annual competition that judges redesigned or significantly changed vehicles on innovation, design, safety, performance, technology, value and driver satisfaction. Even though the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500 and Ram were all redesigned, media reviews praised the Ram for its interior. FCA US said December sales rose 14 percent, driven in part by a 34 percent increase in Ram pickup sales. For the year, Ram pickup sales gained 7.2 percent to 536,980 deliveries. .

As the road gets bumpier for truckmakers, AB Volvo faces emissions pothole Esha Vaish, Reuters / January 25, 2019 Swedish truckmaker AB Volvo’s attempts to cope with a weakening global market are being complicated by problems with a component that do not appear to be affecting its main rivals. Volvo said in October some of its engines could be exceeding emission limits of toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) because catalytic converters in its emissions after-treatment systems were wearing down more quickly than expected in certain situations. This fueled speculation that rivals Volkswagen and Daimler could have the same problem, after Volvo said it sourced converters from a single external supplier. Johnson Matthey, Umicore and BASF have a triopoly in that supply market. However, representatives for Volkswagen’s truck group Traton, which houses the MAN, Scania and VW brands, as well as Daimler have told Reuters their firms have not had any issues. Traton vehicles are meeting NOx emission limits on delivery and also over time, a spokesman said, while a Daimler spokesman said “all indications are that we achieve the targeted service lives” for NOx system components in its trucks. Volvo’s problem is a distraction at a time when demand prospects look weaker in China, the world’s largest commercial vehicles market; growth in Europe is slowing; and order cancellation rates in North America are rising. Over the past few years, orders have boomed as operators renewed fleets starved of investment during the global financial market crash. “We now factor in a cyclical downturn in 2019-20, with the U.S. order bubble an added risk,” Societe Generale analysts wrote on Jan. 14, downgrading Volvo to “sell” from “hold” and forecasting its adjusted operating income would fall 40 percent by 2020 versus 2018. Volvo warned this month its operating income for the fourth quarter of 2018 would be hit by a 7 billion Swedish crowns ($779 million) provision to cover the cost of its emissions problems. UBS cut its 2018 operating income forecast by 17 percent and said investors might worry “there may be more to come” as Volvo said it would continue to assess the provision size. Volvo, which publishes 2018 results on Jan. 30, is expected to report adjusted operating profit of 40.53 billion crowns on sales of 388 billion, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. Daimler reports results on Feb. 6 and Volkswagen on March 12. UNANSWERED QUESTIONS Volvo has not said how many trucks might be affected by the emissions problem, and it is unclear what fix regulators might ask for, or whether its supplier might foot some of the bill. However, Volvo has delivered up to 1.68 million trucks that could have the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system, as regulations have meant that SCR has been a standard on Europe trucks since 2005 and on U.S trucks since 2010. Volvo refused to named the supplier, though a previously unreported Volvo document shows it was Johnson Matthey, the world’s biggest supplier of catalytic coatings for diesel trucks. A Johnson Matthey spokeswoman refused to comment. Johnson Matthey said in November it had been informed by two customers of failures in certain engine systems where it supplied “a particular coated substrate as a component” for emissions after-treatment systems. A previous report in March had only identified one affected customer. Johnson Matthey, which has around 65-70 percent market share in U.S. trucks and about 60 percent in Europe trucks, took a charge of 50 million euros to settle a lawsuit related to the coated substrate last year. Analysts have linked that lawsuit to truck-engines maker Cummins, which last year recalled about 500,000 trucks produced between 2010 and 2015 - also due to a catalyst degrading faster than expected. Cummins did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Umicore spokesman said the company had no exposure to Volvo engines, while a BASF spokeswoman said the problems Volvo was having with its emission systems were not due to any catalysts provided by her company. Johnson Matthey’s report also said it had sold the “coated substrate” in question to only two customers.

The quality of Chinese tires in year 2019 is extremely good Bob. If you buy, for example, Triangle or Double Coin, you're getting a first rate tire.

Ford Trucks international / January 24, 2019 WRC-veteran M-Sport Ford WRT is starting the 2019 WRC season with the Ford Trucks F-MAX! We're proud to be “The Official Truck Supplier” behind the Ford Fiesta WRC and M-Sport. #FordTrucks #FMAX #WRC #FordFiestaWRC https://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/about-wrc/rally-cars/ford-fiesta-rs-wrc/page/796--672-672-.html .

Proof that CEOs who require on-the-job training aren't a wise choice.