So long Maxxforce 15, we hardly knew you. Yesterday Navistar announced plans to end production of their much malgined Maxxforce 15 engine in favor of the Cummins ISX 15. The writing has been on the wall for Navistar’s “big bore” engine for some time now following announcements that EGR efforts would be abandoned and a reconciliation with Cummins was under way. Senior VP of North American Sales, Jim Hebe, admits that he sad to see the big Maxxforce fade away saying “It’s a great engine but we can’t support it, the volumes are too small and we have to develop SCR on all our other engines.” So there you go, low volumes.
In other product news Navistar dealer personel from across the country have descended upon Salt Lake City for a bootcamp aimed to increase knowledge of how to sell new trucks and maintain marketshare in the current highly competive vocational market. The new tatic for International dealers will be to highlight the strengths of their trucks compaired to competitors with out resorting to bashing or trash talking. Jim Hebe explains.
We don’t just tell them ‘This is how you sell against this product,’ we tell them what’s good about it. If you can tell your customers something good about the competitor’s product – something that the competitive salesperson didn’t even know – that gains you instant credibility. We walk these guys through, teach them what’s good about their products and what’s good about our products.
Attendees were also presented with over 50 trucks to sample and drive including the new LoadStar and the sloped hood Workstar. For a gallery of photos from the event click here. Other changes mentioned were the availability of a 4×4 TerraStar, a revised ProStar, new and upgraded interiors and a time table for SCR on all International engines. For the full details click here.
TruckingInfo.com – No More Criticism of Competitors Navistar’s Hebe says; Maxxforce 15 to be dropped.
Trucknews.com – Navistar bolsters vocational product line; puts dealers thourgh boot camp