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

In my 95 with an Aero 1 bunk I had to lay a towel across the shelf under the upper bunk windows to soak up the water when it rained. And my fuse panel was a mess from water running down he left side cab corner.

 

That fuse panel had to be one of dumbest ideas ever considering it's location. The seal where it mounts to the exterior firewall leaks on to the entire block and during the Winter snow covered boots usually sit right on top the vented cover. It gets hammered from both sides.

KW adds insult to injury and will not sell just the box alone anymore. Now they force you to buy all the harnesses for behind the entire dash to get a new panel.

 

Kenworth made the mistake of ending the iconic W900.

The W990 had some nice new improvements, but at the end of the day, no air cans, horrible lights and that ugly grill and hood, are going to replace the Bentley/Ferrari of the trucking industry.

I like the narrow cab in my W9. I can reach over and pop the door open, reach just about everything, including the AC vents, roll the other window down, and there’s plenty of comfort and room for me. I can slide my seat back into the aero cab sleeper. I’m not little either. Maybe someone 350 lbs might not like the narrow cab, but they have more important things to worry about at that weight than the narrow cab that wasn’t made for them to fit in the first place.

The W900 makes up around 10 percent of Kenworth’s sales. That’s a big number to just rip away and expect everyone to just buy the ugly w990. What even is Kenworth thinking? The 990 doesn’t even come close to those numbers, the looks and the history of the W900. I never hear anyone say “I dream of buying a W990”.

Kenworth told their loyal owner ops and old school companies that buy them to basically go screw themselves.

Maybe some good ole protests outside of dealerships and corporate headquarters will shake them up.

 

Doubtful a protest would do much seeing that Renton is slated to produce medium duty KW and Peterbilt trucks once the W900 is done this year.

It’s pretty easy to see that both Pete and KW have been leaning into fleet sales the past few years. They likely make a lot more money on fleet T680 sales than what they’d make from their “loyal” customers who buy a W900 every few years.

It’s tough to say what will happen. But as a corporation I’m sure Paccar will be better off moving medium duty production to Renton from Canada and Mexico.

There’s also a rumor that the W990 might be getting a redesign of the hood.

 

@Vampire I agree with everything you said. When the W990 came out I was not into the looks of it all. KW didn't even try to redesign the W9 into the future. Scrapping it is a huge mistake. I drive an '09 W9 and I will never part with it until the day I decide to hang it up.

 

They might make more with the T680, but 10 percent of sales is a big number for a company. A 10 percent loss in sales would get a CEO canned. All of the costs associated with building the W900 are already there, and have been paid for many times over. Whatever extra manpower is required, is reflected in the price.

In addition, the EPA already relaxed the restrictions that Kenworth claimed was the reason for this change.

Maybe this will get Kenworth upper management fired, leading Kenworth to actually rely on truckers to lead their company, who care what the customers want. If not, a company like Edison will step up and take that portion of the business.

Slapping lipstick on the W990 and trying to play pretend is a joke, and a slap in the face to customers.

 

The EPA regs most certainly killed off the W900 and Paccar isn't going to reverse course bringing it back. That would be foolish. Those EPA regs will get unpaused in 2028 and everything back to the same as it ever was.

 

Just like everyone said Peterbilt would be done when the 389 went away, they’re still doing just fine and people that want a hood are buying a 589 instead.

I would assume that if all these loyal W900 guys have put their money where their mouth is then all 1000 of the Legacy trucks must already be spoken for since they were announced in March.

The engine manufacturers spent too much money on the next round of EPA engines and have said they’re not changing course. I’m going to assume at this point if the W9 were to continue it would need a digital dash to communicate with everything else. If the engines manufacturers are moving ahead then it makes sense truck manufacturers would too. And now with all the tariff uncertainty it appears moving medium duty production to Renton instead of where it is currently probably offsets the huge 10% loss (and nobody knows of that 10% who will buy other KW models when they need a truck) of the W900 going away.