Ruminating on the International CXT

[jmowreader]

This truck has been the subject of at least two DU threads. For those who missed it, the CXT is an International 7500 crew-cab vocational truck chassis with a pickup bed on it. It stands nine feet tall, it weighs so much you need a new driver's license, and it gets six miles to the gallon.

I think this isn't a serious standalone product so much as it is a way to introduce International's upcoming "upfitted" truck business.

The upfitting industry is huge, and none of the truck builders are currently in it. An upfitter takes rolling chassis, like the International 7500, and puts "work bodies"--dump beds, linemen's cherry pickers, and so on--on them. There is a separate upfitting industry that does emergency service vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks.

I think International's angle is as follows: instead of just selling rolling chassis to upfitters, they'll be able to deliver complete, ready to use trucks that have one warranty, one owner's manual, and that you only have to take to one place to have serviced. (Which will mean that in a year or so after the upfitting shop gets going, they'll only have to ship upfitted trucks--would you sell a truck from a builder that's competing with you? It's not like Kenworth, Peterbilt, Mack, Freightliner, Volvo...are shipping rolling chassis or anything like that.) Proof they can upfit? Look at the CXT.

Very few yuppies will consider the CXT. It costs $100,000, you need a new driver's license to drive it (and so does mama), it's got a 100-gallon gas tank for a reason, it's nine feet high and the standard garage door is seven feet high, the average Hummer driver is not going to want to wait until the air pressure builds up high enough to stop the truck before they can leave, a newborn requires less fastidious care than a heavy-duty diesel engine, and when they hear "if you do not drain the air tanks every day they will rust out and kill you in a horrible accident," they will turn around and leave. Not to mention the fact that the International dealer is in the bad part of town and is closed on Saturday. There are lots of trucks that don't require you to become a professional trucker if you want to go out for a burger in them. This is not one of them.

[billbuckhead]

1. I've already saw a similar Ford F600 pickup in Cherokee County Georgia

Build it and they will come.