kscarbel2 Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Jim Park, Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / February 19, 2019 In a seeming repeat of last year's performance, Daimler Trucks North America said it is effectively sold out for the remainder of the 2019 model year. The company sold a record 175,950 units in 2018. It was the largest year ever for retail sales in the history of the company, said Richard Howard, DTNA’s senior vice-president – sales and marketing. "By March of last year, we were technically sold out for the whole of 2018," Howard told a press gathering in Palm Beach, Florida. "And in terms of business performance, today, we are effectively sold out for 2019. It's a great position to be in." In terms of New Cascadia registrations and sales, DTNA was sitting at just under 90,000 units as of last month. Howard predicted DTNA would "punch through the 100,000 mark" during the first three months of 2019. "That is quite an amazing number for a truck that has been on the road for such a short period of time," he said. The New Cascadia was first unveiled in 2016. Production ramped up to full capacity during the second quarter of last year and has been going full-bore ever since. Daimler has taken steps to ensure that all those spots on the assembly line turn into actual sales. "Back in July of last year, we conducted a deep review of dealer orders and purged 45,000 orders to ensure those we had were based on actual customer demand not just speculative orders from the dealer network," Howard said. As well, Daimler moved to a dealer allocation system in 2018 to ensure a fairer approach. The company reviewed order intake again in the fall and concluded it had lower than normal cancellation rates, which historically run at about 3%. "Today, we are at about half that cancellation rate on our backlog, and we still have more order intake than we can handle in 2019," noted Howard. Howard attributed the high market acceptance of the New Cascadia to the integrated Detroit powertrain and the advanced safety systems. He said 95% of all DTNA customers choose Detroit power and the DT12 automated transmission, while 75% of the customer base choose Detroit Assurance as their safety system of choice. "Customers have told us that prior to the introduction of Detroit Assurance, their incident rate was as high as 1 in 5 in any given year. They now claim it has dropped to 1 in 20," said Howard. The New Cascadia will launch later this year in Australia, while the classic Cascadia will see the end of its run by the end of 2019. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxidyne Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Now if Ford had developed a conventional version of the F-Max alongside the cabover, they'd be introducing it into the hottest truck market in years with sales success and profitability assured... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayseed Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 3 hours ago, kscarbel2 said: Daimler Trucks North America said it is effectively sold out for the remainder of the 2019 model year. That Explains Why there's no Stock Down here ,& their complete indifference to our Market.. 1 Quote "Be who you are and say what you feel...Because those that matter...don't mind...And those that mind....don't matter." - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TS7 Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 How many of these sales are to fleets that lease trucks for 3-5 years, then start over? How good a truck do you have to build to last 5 years? Build cheap, sell cheap, lease cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxidyne Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 As far as the manufacturer is concerned, short life span is a feature, not a bug... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxidyne Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 What really stands out is that just one of Daimler's models, the Cascadia, is flirting with six figure annual production volumes. That means that Daimler can crank them out at passenger car line rates and spread the development and tooling costs over a million plus units which makes the Cascadia very profitable. Volvo can't match that volume with the VN conventionals, LR, MR, and Mack conventionals combined. And instead of selling out and retreating from big trucks, Ford could be enjoying those six figure volumes today... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayseed Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 11 hours ago, Maxidyne said: And instead of selling out and retreating from big trucks, Ford should be enjoying those six figure volumes today... I Fixed It for you.... 1 Quote "Be who you are and say what you feel...Because those that matter...don't mind...And those that mind....don't matter." - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TS7 Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 May be someone who owns a Cascadia will post here how good they are and if they have any issues. Since Daimler sells so many trucks they must be the best built on the road and last forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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