Monday, October 10, 2011

I've got the class 7 blues

They're digging a hole in Halifax for a new library. Hauling away the blast rock today was a selection of blue dinosaurs. All blue, and so am I because we won't see these produced again.

1. The most recent victim is Sterling, a Daimler product, built in St.Thomas, ON and using the Ford Louisville tooling, it was really only ever a brand name, but it competed with Daimler's own Freightliners - it had to go and it's gone.


2. Ford got out of the heavy truck line and this Louisville L9000 was the last of the breed. Ford is still in the class 5 -7 business-the only one of the big 3 still there.

3. GM got out of class 8 when it sold to Volvo, but kept up in class 5-7, with the Top Kicks and models such as this GMC C8500 for a time. They tried to sell off to Isuzu and International without success so pulled the plug completely in August 2009. No more GMC class 7s-probably for ever. They had a newer cab than this 1980s to 2000 version (this one with the increased headroom roof) and the truck was a popular choice for municipalities (countless fire engines), but Freightliner and International were eating their lunch.

Gone but not forgotten by Truckfax!

.

No comments:

Post a Comment