Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

The weight limit in the US is 80,000 lbs. A quarry truck probably doesn't look as good as a Peterbilt 359exhd, but not one singleEuropean truck in the last 50 years does either.

 

The post is why do Americans hate European trucks. First, our on road weight limit is 80,000 lbs. The truck I showed you can haul that, your Ginaf would not be able to haul the same cargo as our truck because its tare weight is greater. Second, all of these manufacturers are global companies. We have Daimler trucks here. Instead of being called Mercedes, they're called Freightliner. The engineers are the same, but the design is appropriate for American highways. The non-aerodynamic trucks, which are still made have a market because they are much nicer trucks than Volvos and Freightliner. They last longer and are a source of pride to the owner. Their owners are the American driver who hate European trucks.

 

Well, you may like the looks of the Peterbilt, I think it looks ridiculous. But it's all a matter of taste.

I don't know what the GVW limit is in Austria, but most likely it is 88,000 lbs. So you can't drive that Ginaf fully loaded over public roads.

The Ginaf is build for a GVW of 141,000 lbs, so of course is tare weight is more, it has to be stronger then a truck build for a GVW of 80,000 lbs. Ginaf doesn't build small trucks like that, you can get them of the shelf from DAF.

 

From when I can remember till I was about 22 I was a an American truck fan.
We used Mack , Oshkosh , Int Paystar/Transtar,Ford Lousville , Kenworth.
The European trucks in the same segment available were , Merceded,Man , ERF ,Foden ,Volvo Scania.
There was actually a lot of rivalry and it was typical to have arguments about EU vs US trucks.
I was firmly in the US truck camp.
Typically we would argue that EU trucks were ugly , girly and weak.
Then as I started to work with them reality started to win me over.
I eventually gave in and conceded that I liked to be able to drive with out a kidney belt , I liked to be able to keep my feet on the floor with out them burning up ,
I liked being able to head out over poor roads with out wondering which piece of the truck would give in first.
I liked not having to crawl under the truck twice a month tightening all the bolts and nuts up that would come loose.
So when I looked at these trucks I once saw as girly and weak they started to instill a feeling of confidence and relaxation.
Now the truth be told there was a lot of good about the old US trucks but they were animals to drive.
This has now all changed and a modern US truck is more than comfortable enough and they hold together okay.
I have no problem operating either but for the real heavy stuff I find EU trucks much better.
For pure economics on loads up to 66 000lbs on good roads the US have the edge.

 

Caesar, the reason why there are foreign cars in the US is because the foreign cars started with something we didn't have here, compact cars. Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar, etc sold here, but only the high end models. Fiat, Mini, the Japanese cars weren't big sellers. Then the gas prices doubled practically overnight, and the fuel efficient cars were hot, there were only a few domestic models, and that opened the door for the imports, which were significantly smaller.

A class 8 truck of the time, were DAFs, MANs Volvos, Mercedes, etc getting better mileage than our trucks at the time? An imported class 8 truck could not be smaller than our class 8, so there is no reason to import them. In the late 70s, early 80s two European manufacturers bought 2 American truck manufacturers. The imported the technology, just not the truck.

Where I work, most of the trucks are 17 year old Freightliners, but they have 3 10 year old Volvos. Our shop can rebuild the engines in the Freightliners, and all other repairs needed. They are unable to work on the Volvos, so they go to the Volvo dealer which is more expensive. Yes the d13 will last, but when it comes time to rebuild it, it costs an arm and a leg. A basic rebuild for a series 60 is $7,500, and any shop can do it.
On a Volvo there multiple layers of electronics that can fail. Your lights out? You can't go to the truckstop, only to the dealer.

After Daimler bought Detroit Diesel, they started putting MBE6000 engines in Freightliner trucks. The result? I am looking to buy a certainly model truck. I looked at listings, and, sorted by price, lowest to highest, a 2005 is amongst the 1995 truck prices. Why? Because it has an MBE6000 instead of a series 60.

Your quarry dump truck is no better than ours, does nothing our truck can't do, so why would we import it when we have them here?

 

Once again, and I think I may put this in every post from now on, the thread is called "why do so many Americans hate European trucks?" It is not "why do so many Europeans think their trucks are as good as, if not better than American trucks?" You thinking a classic American is ugly does not answer the question. My knowing European trucks are ugly does.

 

Your preferences remind me of a joke. I hope you get it. My father told me that understanding humor in a foreign language is very difficult.

A man has a well educated, idealistic son who wants his parents to arrange a fitting marriage for him. His father tells him he has 2 young ladies. The first is an attractive girl who is a good cook, but average intelligence. The other is an opera singer, but is extremely large and unattractive. Being the idealist, he chooses the diva. The morning after the wedding, he rolls over and looks at his new wife. "For heaven's sake" he says to her, "sing something!"

 

Yes, and the stupid thing is that your GM, Ford and Chrysler were building those cars in Europe and elsewhere, and didn't sell them in NA. So they left the door wide open for imports from Asia and Europe.

Yes, US cars were much bigger.They were called battleships over here. They were sold here too, with heavy duty suspension, heavy duty brakes, heavy duty cooling system, and even then they wouldn't last on the autobahn. And as a US citizen wrote just a few weeks ago, even today's US cars are no good on the autobahn

Of course, they know NA truckers have a taste for "classic" looking trucks, to use a euphemism.

Great, none of these old boneshakers would even be allowed in many of our cities because of the pollution they cause. Only Euro 4 trucks and newer are allowed.

Yes, the times that you could maintain a truck with a spanner and a screwdriver are gone, and that also applies to modern NA trucks.

The only thing we do with trucks that old is sending them to third world countries. No European driver wants to use them, except for going to a truck show.

Where did I write that you should import them? You compared it with that blue Peterbilt, I didn't. And then I asked you to show me a comparable NA dump truck, and so far you haven't.

 

My eyes gloss over when I see a sexy truck like this. If it happens when I'm on the phone with my wife, she thinks I'm oogling young women in bikinis. Nope! Much worse! I've seen another gorgeous W900L
None of your Euro trucks will ever elicit that type of response, even from the nerdiest engineer.