Future CAT owners

Discussion in 'Trucks [ Eighteen Wheelers ]' started by Vurtle, Sep 19, 2014.

  1. Vurtle

    Vurtle Light Load Member

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    Mar 9, 2012
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    I promised the CAT rep I would encourage anyone I talk to to stay away from CAT products in the future. We had our supplier, who is a large CAT dealer, vouch for us that we are not a CAT dealer competitor and that we actually help them quite often. The rep told our CAT dealer to have us call him. I called the guy and he told me he wouldn't sell us the new CAT ET because we are a competitor. When I asked him how independent shops are suppose to work on CAT products, he replied that he hopes independent shops aren't able to work on CAT products. It was a very short conversation and the rep was rude from the moment he opened his mouth. The goober doesn't realize we are in the heart of a lot of CAT mining equipment and that we have a good reputation with those who choose what equipment they purchase. Any recommendation to those guys will be to stay away from CAT because they will have a hard time getting any support from anyone other than CAT. CAT cant keep up with the repair demand in our area, and repairs often take weeks by them due to lack of manpower. I predict CAT will be a non existent company in a decade based on their whole companies mentality.

    As far as class 8 goes, our CAT ET 2011 wont even let us clear codes or change parameters anymore. Cummins is still working with us at least.
     
    heavyhaulerss and Cat sdp Thank this.
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  3. Cat sdp

    Cat sdp . .

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    My cat house treats me very well.....

    But that's the dealership , the jack offs in Illinois suck. And all they care about is their stock price and how much they can make in some far off underdeveloped country .

    How's the sale numbers doing for the ct660...? He He......
     
  4. jbatmick

    jbatmick Road Train Member

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    I have never cared for Cat in any form. Would not want to own one.
    Some folks like them, but I have never been impressed with the company. Their attitude sucks.

    And think about what happens in a Cat house ------------- Somebody gets screwed, and then hands over the money.
     
  5. Big Don

    Big Don "Old Fart"

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    It has to depend on the dealers. Wheeler Machinery in Utah, gives very good service.
     
  6. blanco

    blanco Road Train Member

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    Gwinnett County, GA
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    They won't go away anytime soon. They have contracts to service city buses, county buses and other state vehicles. I do understand your frustration and have also wondered how are they still in business. The older reps knew people and how to work together to accomplish things. The new guys have no clue and don't really care.

    Our top parts guy here in Atlanta retired after about 40 years and he didn't need a vin or part number to get the correct part. Now-a-days it took 4 months to get a core refund on a turbo. We still have 1 CAT Freightshaker (Pops) and will not be buying anything cat. Pops learned the hard way, just like yourself. Shame!
     
  7. Lucar

    Lucar Road Train Member

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    Texas
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    CAT went from being #1 to being a nightmare to have.
    It is not even an asset anymore, it's a burden in every business way possible, aside a down time consuming product.
     
  8. GrapeApe

    GrapeApe Road Train Member

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    We were lucky enough to get it before they stopped selling it. Now they only way you can get it legally is if you are a Cat dealer or a very good $100,000+/year customer. We are also stuck with Windows XP because if we have to reinstall ET, we were told that they will not license it again. I will say that our local Cat dealer treats us well, the truck dealerships that work on Cat engines also treat us well, but the bottom line is, we have the right to choose who repairs our equipment. Small fleets have the right to have their own repair shop and work on their own trucks.

    Read some good info here and write some letters to your reps:
    http://www.righttorepair.org/main/default.aspx

    Some states already have some form of legislation on this, but it's outdated and Cat found all the loopholes to continue to refuse selling diagnostic software.
     
    EverLuc and Hammer166 Thank this.
  9. BeenJammin

    BeenJammin Light Load Member

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    Looking at your last line, I know I'm not wise, because I got to say something. An old man told me about 40 years ago, there are a lot of fringe benefits from being the piano player in a house of ill repute, and he departed with a smile.
     
  10. Oscar the KW

    Oscar the KW Going Tarpless

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    I think that Cat and their dealerships are just trying to keep everything (class 8 wise) coming into their dealerships. The one that I use at home, on the truck side, has been very slow lately. There have been a lot of guys and companies that have went ahead and purchased new trucks and let the old cat powered stuff go on down the road.
     
  11. Vurtle

    Vurtle Light Load Member

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    Mar 9, 2012
    Tx
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    We are over that 100k a year with the dealer for our parts, but no dice. Our supplier even wants us to have it. We will work on CATs as long as we can for our customer's sakes. Its frustrating though. Hook up to a customers truck and check codes then try to clear them and they want the passwords. Need to make a parameter change such as pulses per mile or anything simple like that and forget it. There are still some ECMs that we hook up to and no passwords required, but we are finding the trucks that have had any ECM updates performed in the last year now request customer passwords or factory passwords. The owners say they were never informed of a customer password. These are repeat customers whose ECMs never needed this before they had dealer work done. Not the dealers fault, but CAT has figured out how to change something in the ECMs so that our programs won't work anymore.
     
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