Re: Throughly modern light line

[Howard R Pletcher <n9ads@domain.elided>]

I don't remember hearing the IH pickups being called dated, particularly
after the new 69 designs came out, but that could easily go along with
the perception that the IH's were a work truck for the contractor or
farmer, in contrast with Ford and Chevy pickups that were rapidly
evolving into the "near-automobiles" that they have become.  I wouldn't
argue that IH did not lead this trend, although my recollection of
driving various competitive vehicles for some evaluations in the early
70's was that Dodge in this time frame was the one that was really
lagging--even their fanciest one made me think of a Park Ranger in his
stripped down government-issue truck.

As has been discussed before, the dealer network was wrong to reach the
recreational market.  IH may have had many dealers, but many people
wouldn't consider going down to a tractor or big truck dealer to buy
their pickup.  

But probably the biggest factor was that IH was not big enough to
continue to compete, just as Studebaker, Reo, Hudson, Nash, etc. all
found out.  There are really economies of scale.  I'm not sure of the
exact pickup production--at most perhaps 50,000 per year. Today GM builds
that many pickups in just 3 months--at their Fort Wayne plant alone.  For
all their plants, or for Ford, 50,000 is about 2 1/2 weeks' production.  
 With the relatively low production and the price set by what the big
producers charged, IH just couldn't make enough profit to continue
building them and making the changes necessary to keep up.  Sure, product
changes could have increased sales, but even the unlikely event of
doubled sales would have still left IH a minor player in the pickup field
(and where would the money have come from for the bigger plant to build
that many pickups?)

And about the comment that IH had the new Dodge look in the '60s--that's
true, but that was when that look was old, not when the retro look came
back in unfortunately.  In the late 60s, few people would argue that the
pre-69 IHs weren't ugly, even those of us that were already into IHs. 
But that look is back in style so they aren't ugly anymore.

That's my $.02 on this subject.

Howard Pletcher
Howteron Products Scout Parts

On Mon, 19 Apr 1999 20:32:36 -0700 "Thomas J. Harais"
<tjhemh@domain.elided> writes:
>Chris:
>
>Cheap! These folks. I don't think so. You should have seen the wedding
my
>future brother-in-law threw (the dairy farmer I was talking about) for
his
>daughter. Had to cost $50,000.
>
>My point wasn't that IH was bad. Just that the general public perception
was
>that they were dated and very slow to change - slower than GM and Ford
>anyway. (Howard, you were there. Am I offbase here?) And "perception is
>reality" in the political and marketing world. Thus, IH sales just
weren't
>happening.
>

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