Canadian Retail Truck Sales for March 2009 (With links to US figures):
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I found these figures very interesting. Notice that YTD market share for Class 8 Kenworth & Peterbilts is down by almost half! Every other manufacturer is gaining market share. I wonder if this is because the O/O market is drying up and Paccar is no longer selling their signature long hood units? Mind you, to a lesser extent their market share is also down for Class 7's as well. Opinions?

P.S. I'm guessing that the Prostar is doing quite well - IMHO you definitely see more of them than Cascadias (at least around here).

 

Paccar has always had a specialized market when it comes to their signature trucks, meaning the W900 and 379. Very few fleets run these trucks due to the fuel mileage and price. Paccar has kept their prices up when others have lowered their prices. There are also trucks with better designed sleepers that are more comfortable. These two models have mostly catered to the owner operator and small fleet market. Fleets have moved to those trucks that will be more comfortable for drivers and that get the best fuel mileage. Paccar's main selling point with these two models has been resale value and the classic look. Both are good looking trucks, but when the economy is down then nothing is going to hold it's value. Tens of thousands of owner operators have either parked their trucks or gone out of business. That has diminished their market share further than before. International has been coming on strong in recent years, especially the new designs, Prostar and Lonestar. I have not seen many Lonestars on the road yet, but I expect them to have a good offering. I think another thing that has hurt Paccar is the loss of Catapillar as an engine option. They are currently limited to Cummins and they plan on coming out with their own engine. I question how well the new engine will be received. Most of the class 8 manufacturer's are coming out with their own engines. I think most are reluctant to pay top dollar for an unproven engine or take a chance in a slow economy. I would not be surprised to see one or more of the major truck manufacturers to bite the dust.

 

agreed 100%. i was thinking about this today when i saw a 379 and a w900 going down the road, they look great, ride great but.. why would anyone put looks infront of making money? i mean, even if you get .3 mpg better with lets say for agruments sake, a 386 over a 379 it adds up! i do see alot more straight trucks that are kw or petes and alot of med. duty bevrage trucks over here. as far as engines go, maybe they'll get detroit back in the game?

 

They will never go back to detroit as long as freightliner aka dimler owns detroit.Thats why you can only get them in freightliner and western star nobady wants to support there comp. buy buying engines from a direct competitor.I have a friend that until receantly was a mech. for kenworth and what he was hearing from paccar was they will be phasing out cat for obvious reason no longer makeing a engine for overhighway and cummings will be the next that they are going to phase out and you will only be able to get the new paccar engine in paccar trucks.They already have some on the road here that they are testing and they are having very good success with them.I have a feeling that international might go the same way with there new maxxforce engine aka cat.There was a international rep on the sat. radio awhile back and the question was asked to him if they were going to phase out the cummins engine with there maxxforce engine coming out and he kinda gave the run around on it saying "you would be able to get either engine for now"but wouln't answer if they were phasing out and only offering there own engine.

 

Well Sterling got the axe. Who might be next? I've heard rumours that Volvo would eliminate their VHD's and make Mack their vocational only line (and eliminate the Pinnacle.) I can see the logic in that.

As far as eliminating Cummins goes, I imagine there would be a lot of resistance to that. I'd be very curious to see how Daimler's decision not to sell DD engines affected their bottom line. i.e. Did their Class 8 market share improve? Did people say "I want to DD engine no matter what package it's in"? Because if they didn't, the end result of their strategy is that they simply ended up selling fewer engines.

BTW, at least Paccar isn't as bad as the US automakers: while they might be hurting because of the O/O Hood market, at least they actually do make more competitive aerodynamic models. It's not like the car manufacturers who killed the electric car in favour of producing Hummers and Silverados.

Does Paccar price their aerodynamic trucks competitively?

 

it sure is a shame that cat will not be in the new petes or kw's. that is truely a great engine. and for the most part. I believe has saved the peterbuilt and kenworth line for paccar. and knowing that paccar has got to use cummins in everything. which means the isx engine. which isn't worth a crap.. paccar is going to be hurting for a while.. until cummins makes a better engine. or cat make a cleaner running engine. and the new detroit motor. is nothing more then a painted M.B.E. and they are nothing but junk.. they put them into frieghtliner. and it nearly broke the company..... It sure is a shame to see cat leave the highways...

 

i dont think cat leaving will have that much of an affect. when i was looking for a truck i looked at many paccar products and couldnt find many with a cummins. but i mean.. i guess its prefrence. then again.. ifi was doing heavy hauling i'd go with a cat over anything else.. and it would be in a paccar prouduct.

 

I read something not too long ago that CAT may be marketing International's new engine under their name. I don't know whether it is true or not. Yellow paint doesn't make a CAT engine. About a year or two I had an opportunity to work with some people from International. One question that came up was about proprietary engines. I told them that I would not have an interest in buying a proprietary engine from any manufacturer. I explained my reasoning such as parts availability, cost, reliability, etc., I still have those concerns. That was the main reason I didn't buy a Mack some years ago. The only engine available at the time was a Mack. If I were to use the truck locally, then I might be more inclined to buy one, but for otr market they don't seem to be very practical. You will pay over $100/hour at many dealers for them to work on your truck. When you have a proprietary engine you will be forced to go back to a dealer, at least for a while. That means when something goes wrong you will pay a premium for them to make any repairs.