Mackguy

Trust me, there's a lot of us here that would love a re-imagined B-model. A lot of the people here consider the B their "favorite", with the R model a close runner up. Unfortunately I don't know of any plans for a project like that. EPA2010 has been the biggest push and nobody is really even talking about new product right now. Regarding making something to compete with the International Lone Star, I think if Mack was going to do this it would have been instead of the Titan.

That orange dump is one tough looking truck! Hope it performs as well as it looks!

Mack is being moved out of the NRV plant, all Mack product will be produced at Macungie now, Volvo in NRV. So they are making some things more separate and somethings more common. It will be interesting to see how it all works out in the end.

Larry, Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post. With the pathetic new-truck sales numbers of the past year, our upper management has recently expressed a commitment to "soft products" which includes, among other things, legacy parts sales. The thought is that as new-truck sales decline, legacy parts sales increase, so if we can be more efficient at providing the legacy parts it will help offset poor new-truck sales in a weak market. That is to say, again I can't make any promises, but hopefully this problem is being addressed.

Thanks Larry et al. I try to get customer feedback whenever I can, but of course in today's business climate there's not much budget for anything other than trying to be sure our product is ready for 2010 so it's hard to justify customer visits etc. Just figured I'd try the back door method and check out the forums. It seems to me that knowing the customers' opinions, expectations, and needs is a good thing. There are still quite a few of us here that really care and remember "The customer is the foundation of our business". It's our job to provide a tool that makes the customer money. While I believe that the Mack name and brand implies more than just an appliance, in today's economy the customer must still justify each purchase based on sound finance. I heard recently from our Marketing department that the number 1 factor in deciding to buy a new truck is "Pride in ownership". Personally I think that Mack should be right at the top as far as pride of ownership.

Oops, double post.

I'll take it all! I missed out on the "glory days" at Mack, I just started about the time the last R-model was made. But I would like to know what the customers expect, and their feedback on our current trucks.

Hello all, I'm part of the "other side" of trucking, I'm a durability test engineer for Mack Trucks. Unfortunately we in the testing area are somewhat insulated from the end users and customers which I think is a real shame. I've been in this department for about a year now and only had 1 day of meaningful interaction with actual drivers. Anyway, I thought this would be a good back-door way for me to get some input from yall. Since I'm new here I don't have a whole lot of clout in getting things done or changing the way we do things, but I'd rather know than not know! Though I've only worked here since the Volvo takeover, I definitely still consider myself a Mack employee, and so far my ID badge and Paycheck still say Mack on them, so I'm good. Most of the people I work with here in Allentown are from the old-guard as well.