Re:New Navistar Int'l 1Ton....Pickup??

[Suprscout@domain.elided]

Hello IHC Digesters,

New Truck from Navistar International? We know they are working on a new cab
design for the”New Generation Truck” but are they up to something else?? Let
me try and
lay out or puzzle together some interesting observations and occurrences: 

1.. Put this in the back of your mind: The International Plant here in
Springfield, Ohio was 
built and designed for the purpose of building Light Trucks, Pickups &
Travelalls . 
Navistar has or had a deal on 2 different plants close by. . Navistar I
believe will 
discontinue building (in the USA) the 9600 cabover later this year leaving the
Long Nose
(93-9400 models) Canada built Trucks, Medium Duty Trucks Springfield, Paystar
line 
truck in Texas, And Engines in Indy & Melrose. Navistar needs to expand its
business in 
some way in order to grow with the time and the increase market share. they
need to reach
farther than the Large & small Fleet, Government, or Farmer Truck buyers. They
need to
get the Business of the one man shows which could be Truck customers who need
a 1 ton
type of vehicle............. or a pickup?. 

2. In November last year At the Sema Show in Los Vegas I had 2 interesting
experiences
with some engineers from Ford. They had unveiled a New Truck Concept . New for
them
because this truck was exactly like the Navistar Avanta Model which is a low
profile
Truck that has ground effects with a Fancy flat bed, special paint , &
interior. Anyway the
first set of Engineers I approached; I asked them about The new “Travelall”
sized , I
actually said Full sized Suburban type with ‘99 350 Body Because I was sure
they wouldnt
have known what a Travelall was, and weather it was going to be available with
the
Powerstroke .They replied “We can not comment on that at this time” I thought
to myself:
Ok I’m dealing with couple of fellows who just didn’t know or just didn’t want
to talk
about it. So I asked them if they thought the V6 diesel being developed for
them by
Navistar would be put in the 150 and Expedition models. His jaw dropped. &
said again
“We’re not allowed to comment on that”. OK ..So I moved on...I found another
Engineer
who was more receptive and he told me about the new Concept Truck which was
considered a medium Duty Truck; up till now medium Ford trucks could not be
equipped
with the Powerstroke per agreement with Navistar.. So I asked him if the
Powerstroke
would be available in this truck He said “It sure will be available” Then I
asked him about
the agreement with Navistar. He replied that for years Navistar would not
allow it but in
this last agreement they agreed to allow them in all Medium duty trucks except
for School
bus Chassis. We both wondered why the change in policy now? I told him maybe
Navistar
was going to build lighter duty trucks and this was a way of keeping good
relations with
Ford while becoming more of a competitor in the lighter duty market. He found
this very
interesting. I also found it interesting that he did not know that Navistar
had the “Avanta”
model truck which was just like the New truck they had just designed. 

3. Recently At a local 4x4 club meeting I spoke to friend who works for a
local towing
and recovery company, he said that Navistar had contracted with his company
and he was
to go to Oklahoma to pickup and transport three 1970s vintage IH pickups and
take them
to a small town north of Springfield where Navistar has an Engineering/design
faculty.????
I told him that this was very interesting and hesaid that it sounded fishy to
him but he
thought they were probably bought by someone who works at the design center.
But who
knows???? 

4. This past weekend I visited a friend from near St.Louis who said he had
talked to
another friend of ours who is a manager with a Navistar Plant; this friend
told him that 
Navistar in the future was going to come out with a 1 ton truck and that they
were going
to replace the T444 with New smaller version of the diesel using computer
technology to 
make up for torque and horsepower loss with smaller cubes. Could there be a 1
ton pickup
be in Navistar’s future? 

5. International has 75+ a year history that they can use to promote this new
product, I
noticed at the 5 Millionth Celebration last October that they did just that by
showing a
movie on the jumbo screen which included alot Vintage Footage of
Internationals past
which included pickups. I also remember during the Company’s President's
speech that he
mentioned a new direction was coming from Navistar Int’l. 
There is a definite following out there for Internationals Light duty side
with 20+
clubs,over 115 IHC WEB-sites etc. 
Also keep in mind that there is only Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, & Dodge are making
1 ton
pickups , so it is plausible that Navistar could succeed in this market. 
There is no hope I am afraid for the “Scout” Vehicle from Navistar because
this market is
flooded with everyone selling their own SUV. 
Freightliner is selling Avanta Size trucks with some success and who knows
they may be
headed for a light truck also. So Navistar has to try and stay ahead of them
for sure. 

6. I learned from my bother who is a parts manager at Center City
International Trucks in
Columbus, OH: That they have added a full time Salesman to handle the sales of
“Towmaster” conversion International trucks which are“Avanta” type
trucks.....could
Navistar be suggesting that all dealers should have a salesman to handle these
Trucks 
maybe in order to get their feet wet in this kind of market???? 
“New Generation International Truck” 
The bottom line is that it is a fact that Navistar is redesigning its S-Series
Cab which has
been used since 1978. Could there be 2 cabs in the future? One cab to replace
the medium
S cab and another to fit a 1 ton type of application with both sharing most of
same
components such as doors, dash instruments etc. Could they be thinking of
putting a
pickup bed into play? Why not bring back the Triple Diamond logo for these
lighter
trucks???? 
As far as the dealer network goes....I seemed to remember a Saturn commercial
where
you could deal and order over the Internet. Would Navistar need more than 900
dealers 
to handle the lighter duty Vehicles??                                         

All very interesting but may add up to nothing........... I will be listening,
asking, & looking
for clues about this in the near future.            

John Glancy of SSS,SLL, & the NATS99