New economical trucks on the market.

Very interesting that Freightliner claims the Cascadia will save $938 per truck in fuel, but International claims the ProStar will save $3900 per truck in fuel. Makes a feller wonder who's being honest.

 

Right now, I wouldn't touch either one of them with a ten foot pole. Trucks typically have a 10-25 year lifespan of a particular model in production. Until that particular model has been on the market at least 3 years and proven that they have no hidden design flaws, I wouldn't have a thing to do with them.

As for their fuel mileage claims, those only work for certain specific setups. If you pull a van and can set it up for the best possible aero effectiveness, then their numbers may be possible. For the rest of the world, the shape of the tracror is not the sole determining factor in what mileage you will get. Too many variables on air flow for anyone to make any specific claims and get me to believe them as gospel truth.

Are they both aerodynamic? Of course they are. But, just how much is a debatable point. Right now, they both have new models out and are engaged in a bit of an advertising war of words. Give it time, let a bunch of them get out on the street and into the real world, and then we may have some solid info and history to make decisions about them. I'm very conservative and slow when it comes to jumping on the new and improved equipment bandwagon.

 

Seems to me like a 20% better fuel economy would be about a 20% savings in fuel. Considering how much fuel these things use a year, savings would add up quick.

But definitely don't get the first model. Like when Chevy released their new 5.3 and so many people experienced piston slap. My brother has one of the 5.3's without the piston slap and it's really nice. Apparently the only place it doesn't outperform my 5.7 is on the low end torque. Technology's amazing.

 

like anything the fuel milage in either model will be directly proportional to the operators right foot pressure
albeit if i had to drive one it would be the prostar.
its almost 2008 time for all truck makers to come up with a complete new design
thats futuristic spacious and efficient

 

Yep, I think one of them is fibbing.

 

Such is the way of advertising... you can play with numbers all day long to make things look good. I know that Roehl just bought a LOT of new trucks so they wouldn't have to deal with the first generation of these new emission-deprived trucks. It must be nice having that buying power... I'm still working on getting new brakes for my Tahoe.