Mack, proud maker of heavy-duty trucks since 1907, has announced a $26 million modernization plan for its Macungie, Pennsylvania assembly plant. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
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+ Aston’s Martin’s limited-production Lagonda four-door will appear later this year with 600 hp V12 power, sources in Britain are reporting. More at Motor Trend.
+ A former head of corporate quality audits at General Motors, William McAleer, warned the company’s board in a 2002 letter of serious safety issues. More at Business Insider.
+ A used-car market study by iSeeCars.com found that yellow and orange exterior colors maintain the greatest resale value, while black, gray, and silver perform the worst. More at Autoblog.com.
+ Honda, Nissan, and Mazda are recalling nearly three million vehicles worldwide to repair defects in their Takata-manufactured airbag systems. More at The Detroit Bureau.
+ Formula One managers have agreed to changes in technical regulations for next year in an effort to eliminate the unattractive noses of the current race cars. More at Racer.
+ The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration is investigating reports of exhaust leaks into the cabins of 2011-2014 Ford Explorers. More at Reuters.
+ Mack Trucks has announced plans to invest $26 million in the renovation of its Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania assembly plant. More at Automotive Business Review.
+ Signaling a potential market shift, RM Auctions will offer three vintage Japanese sports cars—a Mazda Cosmo, a Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R, and a Toyota 2000GT—at its Monterey sale in August. More at Hemmings Daily.
+ NASCAR president Mike Helton says there are no plans to add a road course date to the Sprint Cup Chase schedule in 2015 or beyond. More at the Sporting News.
For the previous Executive Briefing from June 20, click here.
While it’s nice to hear Mack is updating it’s plant, rather than pulling the plug entirely, with heavy duty trucks still only getting 6-7 mpg with fuel costing $4-$5 dollars/gallon and the industry facing the worst driver shortage in history, and government strangulation with rules and regulations, the heavy duty truck market needs an entire revamping of how we haul the nations freight.
Mike Helton sez; “The road courses have evolved on the NASCAR Sprint Cup side and the Nationwide Series and trucks to be some of our most exciting events.”
Really? Pretty sure these were exciting. At least the limited video looks exciting,
That was some exciting racing, although it was kind of ruined for me by the death of a very good racecar driver.
Yeah, the death of Joe Weatherly does take a lot of the enjoyment out of that particular video. It was the first that popped up, and I only watched part way thru before posting it.
Riverside was more exciting than Sonoma or Watkins Glen. Bigger and faster. Mike Helton is making a mistake. Road America would be a great race for Cup and has been a great race for whatever they call the lower series now.
With all we know, seems like Mack could make their trucks a bit more aerodynamic. They probably do have some, but maybe the more traditional looking models sell better.
Hi Andy, Mack never has been known as a long distance road truck, and is best known for it’s local, construction, short haul duties, where fuel economy isn’t as big an issue. Truth be known, these aerodynamic trucks you see, still only average 7-8.5 mpg, hardly what I’d call fuel efficient in today’s economy.
I too, think Road America would make a great place to run those cars.
“Mack never has been known as a long distance road truck”
That makes sense to me. I always think of dump trucks when I think of Mack. I don’t really know how we could revamp the freight industry. We’ve let a lot of rail branch lines go to rot and built subdivisions over them. Even if we improve the rail infrastructure and increase the number of trains, we’ll still need trucks to get the product that last mile. And the public would never stand for autonomous trucks, too big and scary. Maybe they’re hoping that everyone will have a 3D printer to make everything at home. It’s an interesting problem and one that I hadn’t though about much.
Mack had a state of the art facility in Winnsboro, South Carolina, but after they were bought out by Volvo, they shut it down and moved everything back to PA. Mack’s quality has been questionable in the last 15-20 years, somewhat due to their own doing, some due to the enormous pressure put on all truck and engine makers by the EPA.
For years, Mack was the only truck with an intergrated drivetrain all built by themselves, vendor drivetrains were available, but most built were pure Mack. Recently, Freightliner has adopted the intergrated driveline with Detroit components, and PACCAR, parent company of Peterbilt and Kenworth, has developed their own engines. I hope Mack gets it together again, I spent many miles in Mack R and CH models.