anybody been around em at all????

PickupTruck.Com - Sterling Bullet Debuts at NTEA Work Truck Show

 

Fairly common up here. Someone on here had swapped in a Sterling grill on his Dodge.... looked great!

 

Whit,

You're about 2 1/2 years behind schedule.

Sterling is set to die June, 2010.....

 

perty specific date there............why

 

Yeah Sterling is no more...They said there's just not enough money in the business right now. They announced in '08 that they'd be shutting down. They've got enough parts to last 5-10 years depending on model and I think some dealers will stay open to provide service but that's it.

 

Daimler decided, like K50 said, a long while back to eliminate the brand from their heavy truck portfolio due to declining sales and an attempt to reduce overhead, as well as brand overlap.

They closed the St. Thomas, Ontario line in March 2009 when the CAW union contract was up, and plan on closing the Portland, Oregon line in June 2010.

Western Stars and Freightliner's military production is also in Portland and will be relocated....'Stars to Santiago, Mexico and the Freightliner military line to existing plants in the Carolinas.


FYI...the Portland, Oregon plant at one time was the flagship Freightliner facility, and the very first 'real' Freightliner production plant...a major event will take place in the trucking industry next June.

 

So whats gonna happen to the 5-10 years of supplies they have

 

Go into storage, and be used to supply the parts houses of Freightliner and Western Star dealerships who will be able to sell parts and service Sterling trucks.


Not sure if you've ever been around Sterlings, but when Daimler bought Fords class 7 & 8 truck line and brought the Sterling name back to life, the trucks were a bit of a Heinz 57...

Steering wheels and pedals with the Ford blue oval logo, Ford radios, heater controls, dash parts, with fuel caps that said Freightliner on them.....

It happens all the time.....Truck brand history is more complex than Begle's mind, lemme tell ya.

 

I had never heard of Sterlings.
Talking about drying up a brand I have heard a roomer about the F series drying up there automatic transmissions over the next six months on the production line. I’m not sure of all the details on this yet.