Automotive Trucks information on net.

From light-duty pickups and vans to the biggest, most powerful over-the-road haulers, trucks are shedding pounds and using technology to reduce maintenance costs and improve fuel economy

The red-hot market for light-duty trucks is softening slightly, says Howard Layson, director of automotive consulting at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting in New York City. "The shortages of the past 24 months are gone," he says, "be cause [manufacturing] capacity is catching up with the demand. Buyers will be able to get quick delivery unless they order a unique package of options."

Layson says that light trucks--which include pickups, full-size vans, and the now-ubiquitous minivans and sport-utility vehicles--are still the hottest product in transportation.

Today, trucks represent 44 percent of all industry sales. Ross Roberts, general manager of Ford Division, says that by 2000, more trucks than cars will be sold in the United States. Trucks now represent 54.5 percent of sales at Ford, 65 percent at Chrysler Corp., and 42 percent at General Motors Corp.

Maryann Keller, an automotive-industry analyst and the managing director of Furman Selz, LLC, in New York City, says she expects about 6.5 million light trucks will be sold this year. "As long as gasoline costs no more than bottled water," she says, buyers will tolerate the fuel efficiency of light trucks, which averages 14 miles per gallon, 6 miles per gallon less than the average fuel efficiency of cars.

Sales of medium-duty trucks for the first half of 1996 were less than 1 percent below last year's first-half sales. But in heavy-duty trucks, sales of the heaviest type--Class 8, trucks weighing more than 33,000 pounds--were down more than 14 percent from a year earlier, according to the trade publication Automotive News. James L. Hebe, president and CEO of Freightliner, a maker of heavy-duty trucks, forecasts that the industry's Class 8 sales for all of 1996 will be 155,000, down from the record 201,304 sold in 1995.

Because of business's demands for lower operating costs, the newest heavy-duty trucks are losing weight for fuel economy and adding horsepower and torque (pulling power) for faster hill-climbing.

Technological improvements also are helping to reduce operating costs. For example, an option from Detroit Diesel, called optimized idle, keeps the engine warm, the batteries charged, and the cab heated or cooled as necessary while idling the engine at a minimal speed.

# posted by Medical Information : 4:56 AM