Just Wow......Class 8 Truck Orders Fall 52% During April

I hear Cascadias are going up $8k. Considering current freight market conditions, I'll not be surprised if next month we gonna see a 100% drop in orders

 

Been hearing that elsewhere here on the forums as well.
Customers wanting to spec out a Pete or KW but they can’t because PACCAR makes money off of fleet sales instead of 1 or 2 special orders.
Meanwhile,Freightliner and Volvo will happily welcome the business.
Now that the W900 series is scheduled to be discontinued PACCAR may have shot themselves in the foot from a customer viewpoint.

We just received a whole brand new batch of KW T680s and my fleet manager offered me one but I told her no thank you and reminded her about last year when I was sitting in Houston because the last KW I had ended up getting towed with a clogged DPF and other technical issues. I also told her however that if the company orders a new batch of Freightliners then sign me up!

Turns out I wasn’t the only one who said the same thing!LOL

 

Right. Tariffs are simply adding to an already crippled market. The article implies tariffs are the reason but the market has been total crap for a couple years already.

 

I see a LOT of those new T-680's with side fairings missing, mirror covers gone, and they all look pretty new. The first couple I thought was bad drivers, but then saw several that flapped in the wind as the truck goes down the road.

 

Paccar and others had no problems building a great truck in the US in past. This should be a lesson to them for outsourcing and out pricing themselves. For example I look at a 1981 and a 2021 and see no difference in majority of parts used. Other than the electronics, emissions, and sissified interiors. But when you get into the heart of it you can still tell the ‘81 was worth every penny it cost new. The 2021 is not.

 

This is another way small fleets with old school mindsets are going to lose. You can't stop progress, even though it's not progress to some. Look at the junk new Kia/Hyundai cars everyone is driving and the ugly pickups domestic OEM's are putting out. People get used to the looks of the new stuff and they buy it. Trucking isn't all that much different. Big fleets will keep making huge orders of the new stuff for the warranties and the fuel mileage.

Big fleets do the same with drivers. Turn em over, keep em coming, send them packing when they've run em to the ground. Scorched earth.

 

I have a 2025 t680 and have quite a bit of quality control problems... the emissions sensors get wet everytime I drive thru rain all day and it will throw a code.. the windshield leaks when it rains on the passanger side, dripping onto the dash... I've found mice can get in fairly easily to the cab. They jump up on the fuel tank up thru the coolant lines to the bunk heater core, that section is open all thru the ceiling and can get into the dash and then can come thru the opening behind the fuel pedal.. I've killed 2 of them in my truck...the turn signal switch has a glitch in it. You turn on the wipers and sometimes they come on and sometimes I have to fiddle with the switch to get them to work, same with the turn signal... had the same problems on my 567 pete... well the engine runs good and got a proper 13 speed in it so none of the auto trans problems and don't have any nanny sensors either... got 80k miles on it so far

 

Wow! On a 2025. Crazy.

 

I agree. People buy kia because they are cheap and are being given away. They don't do the research and find out that they will be left up the creek in 60,000 miles when the engines lock up. Then fight with them over warranty tooth and nail. Along with the fact that buy now pay later is the norm, Its the throw away mentality more then anything.

 

How great would it be if a company like Marmon returned to the industry, for owner ops. Somewhere you can build the style of truck you want from the ground up, inside and out, plush interiors, custom paint schemes, tires & rims, gear ratios, auto/manual, and the unfortunate ability to throw any current EPA diesel engine in it that you want. But in the end it's a truck built specifically for you.