Two words:

International Harvester.

For those not too familiar with Medium Duty Trucks. They only use names like Rockwell, Borg Warner and Caterpillar, and Cummins and Allison. Not AAM. and Delphi.

Just remember that everything you say (whether or not you think anyone is listening) can be used against you by ‘them who’s in power’.

For that matter, everything we type, too.

That’s okay. One day, these elitists won’t know what to do and will run off and leave the ashes of a civilization to the rest of us. Perhaps we can then pick up where the founding fathers left off and rebuild.

The Navistar influence is responsible for a lot of the problems with the 6.0 liter Ford diesel.

Also, that part of the US market is going to be getting more competitive as Mahindra and Nissan/Renault enter the fray. Toyota/Hino/Isuzu also have big growth plans in medium duty trucks. All of those players have a global vehicle lineup to draw upon. Once upon a time, GM was a major player in everything on the road (and rails). Heck, the US government forced GM to share passenger bus technology because it had that market cornered. Now, GM has “focused” itself out of huge markets.

Or, it could simply be a matter of GM’s lineup being dependent upon very shaky parts supplies from the likes of Delphi, Detroit Axle and GM Powertrain!

Also, I recall seeing a lot of International gasoline V8s being used as pump engines on farms, right by the road, in Kansas pushing…water to center-pivot irrigators ? Oil to a pipeline ?

I’m sure they’re maintained, but the point is, they seem to have been left running continuously, unattended, for years, outdoors…

Also, ‘comments’ seems to have been closed on the Welsh story, but perhaps you remember this bit ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McDermott#Ethics_violation_for_leaking_recorded_telephone_conversation

I’d be something resembling irony if the company went chapter 7 the same month as its 100th anniversary, wouldn’t it?

(tongue in cheek, maybe?)

Actually, to be honest, International truck built some of the best REAL trucks ever.

Up here in the great which lake strewn north, where we have 7 months of winter and 5 months of bad sledding, one of the absolute toughest jobs for vehicles without exception, is PLOW TRUCK.

So need I go any further when I say that everywhere you look up here, you see old (newest possible being 1980 model year) International Scouts with plows, still pushing tons of snow every winter?

Most of them barely have bodies left without rust cancer, but still run. And run. And run.