Commercial Vechicles

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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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GTPlanet, this topic is here for discussion of commercial vehicles. This comes in reaction to the rather interesting "World's Greatest Auto Shows: Hanover (Germany)." So I want to start this thread to discuss commercial vehicles in general as well as certain specific commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles include buses, utility vans, semi trucks, and that sort of thing. I don't know much about them, but I can hope that I (along with you) can learn more about commercial vehicles.

Care to reply? I'll start.

When I was at the Houston Auto Show once, I had a chance to see the Dodge lineup. The Dodge lineup featured cars like the Neon (I liked the SRT-4), the manly Ram, photo shoots of the newest Viper, and I had a chance to check out the Dodge Sprinter. The Dodge Sprinter is a utlity van that was featured on MotorWeek once. The amount of cargo space is unreal. I'm exactly 6 feet tall, and I could literally walk through the rear of it without having to duck my head. It has wide, tall space. I was like... good grief! :eek:

The Mercedes-Benz Travego is a luxurious bus. I was in love with it! It just looked like a luxurious sedan in the form of a stylish bus. I heard it could be equipped with things like refridgerators, flat-screens, DVD, and that sort of thing. Find some pictures of it online. I liked it.

So GTPlanet, if you would like to discuss commercial vehicles, why not go for a reply?
 
JohnBM01
and I had a chance to check out the Dodge Sprinter. The Dodge Sprinter is a utlity van that was featured on MotorWeek once. The amount of cargo space is unreal. I'm exactly 6 feet tall, and I could literally walk through the rear of it without having to duck my head. It has wide, tall space. I was like... good grief! :eek:
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Just a rebadged Merc with some cosmetic changes, but nice though.
 
Get ready for a few websites.

http://www.iaa.de/2004/www/Englisch/fr_home.php
This website is the [ENGLISH] version of the International Motor Show Commercial Vehicles 2004. This is the 60th show in Hanover, Germany. You can take a look at many of the commercial machinery that you probably will never see in the United States. It should be pretty fun to check out some of the stylish and cool machinery. Now keep in mind, this auto show is about commercial vehicles, so don't expect any $500,000, 500+ horsepowered, under 3,000 lbs sportscars here.

If you're going to talk about commercial vehicles, look no further than one of the more popular brands, MAN Truck and Bus (http://www.man.co.uk).

Other than that, this is just about a good idea as to how the Europeans do with commercial vehicles. But if you want to talk about other commercial vehicles from around the world, feel free to reply.
 
There's a twin engined Kenworth that does a quarter @ 13.3....

You don't have a life unless there's a mack bulldog on your hood.
 
Anyone else find it both hilarious and sad that Europeans are of the opinion that North American roads are filled with huge, monstrous vehicles when, in fact, they have commercial trucks that are as large if not larger than North American trucks?
 
Well you know us Americans are all about big machines and couldn't [really] give a hoot about practicality, because we're all about function. I think the big highlight for me about these European commercial vehicles are the big buses. If you look at the website for the Hanover show that I've provided, you'll see some pretty nice buses you probably will never see in the States. If it's one thing I like about the commercial vehicles, I really like the buses. If you check out the IAA Commercial Car show site, do check out the Photos link. Here is that link to the pictures of the machinery and products at the IAA Commercial Car show: (http://www.iaa.de/2004/www/Englisch/Medien/neu_fotos.php).

Maybe imagine going around town on a bus from Solaris or Mercedes-Benz or MAN. The Solaris Urbino III may look like artwork than an actual machine with the photo provided for it, but is a nice machine. There are a few MAN buses here as well. I think after watching "World's Greatest Auto Shows: Hanover," I was really impressed with the MAN Lions City. One thing I liked the most about it was that as soon as you step into the Lions City to go someplace, you don't have to worry about going up a lot of steps like here in the States. If this was a school bus, imagine standing on the sidewalk and not have to worry about going up a lot of steps. Just go in and walk on level ground. Nice feature.

Let's put some function into my reply. The Narrow Track TREMO Carrier is a nice little truck to... well, carry things. I don't know if these are more conceptual than functional, but they just look a bit too conceptual. But they are nonetheless nice ways to get things done whether it's hauling people or hauling equipment. In a future post, I'll talk about some European buses in Japan from a site I found earlier yesterday.
 
Firebird
Anyone else find it both hilarious and sad that Europeans are of the opinion that North American roads are filled with huge, monstrous vehicles when, in fact, they have commercial trucks that are as large if not larger than North American trucks?
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Your roads are filled with huge vehicles, so many trucks (not refering to semi's). Everytime I go to the US & Canada I see more and more of them. Chev trucks, GMC, Hummers, F-series, Rams etc etc etc.

But your large Trucks are crap, refering to semi's. I couldnt find anything in the US that had more than 18 wheels, In Australia most of our semi's are 22 wheelers , B-Doubles (1 half and 1 full trailers) or road trains.
 
Does this count as a Commercial Vehicle? 50's Ford panel van with supercharged 5.0 "cammer"
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Old commercial vehicles can be really cool if nicely restored and rodded. Such as panel vans, bread vans, etc.
 
VIPERGTSR01
Your roads are filled with huge vehicles, so many trucks (not refering to semi's). Everytime I go to the US & Canada I see more and more of them. Chev trucks, GMC, Hummers, F-series, Rams etc etc etc.

But your large Trucks are crap, refering to semi's. I couldnt find anything in the US that had more than 18 wheels, In Australia most of our semi's are 22 wheelers , B-Doubles (1 half and 1 full trailers) or road trains.
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So why is it then, if your commercial trucks are so much bigger than ours, that you feel that our roads are clogged with large vehicles?

You're the ones with the huge semi trailers.

Hell, the best selling cars in Australia are the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon. In Canada they're the Honda Civic and Mazda3. And we're the ones with roads filled with huge vehicles?
 
skip0110
Does this count as a Commercial Vehicle? 50's Ford panel van with supercharged 5.0 "cammer"
Collage_small.jpg

FR100-4.jpg


Old commercial vehicles can be really cool if nicely restored and rodded. Such as panel vans, bread vans, etc.
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If only UPS made that their new fleet vehicle... :lol:
 
JohnBM01
The Dodge Sprinter is a utlity van that was featured on MotorWeek once. The amount of cargo space is unreal. I'm exactly 6 feet tall, and I could literally walk through the rear of it without having to duck my head. It has wide, tall space. I was like... good grief!
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This Daimler-Chrysler thing... sometimes is simply scary!!!
 

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It wasn't originally a UPS truck as far as I know. Ford just repainted a panel van with UPS colors, probably because UPS funded the project.

And it is all NASCAR-inspired tube-frame underneath that skin.
 
When I was in the UK, they had these hideous renault cargo vans, I think they were called the renault kangoo.

that ford is beautiful.
 
Firebird
So why is it then, if your commercial trucks are so much bigger than ours, that you feel that our roads are clogged with large vehicles?

You're the ones with the huge semi trailers.

Hell, the best selling cars in Australia are the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon. In Canada they're the Honda Civic and Mazda3. And we're the ones with roads filled with huge vehicles?
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We have bigger, but not that many to clog the roads. We rarly have any pickup type trucks, you guys have heaps.

My uncle who lives in Edmonton has 2 Chev suburbans, 1 GMC suburban and 1 Chev pick up.

We (Australia) briefly had Chev Suburban and Ford F250 sold here and thats it. For work we us ethier vans or utes.
 
Wow...you guys do truly amaze me, i knew that comming here i would learn a lot but i never knew how much you guys just loved..well... all things with 4 wheels and a motor...i thought i loved cars and then i joined GTPlanet but i just cant keep up! from 3:15 till like 11:00 thats only 8 hours of Internet...minus 1.5 for dinner and cleanup..-20 for comming home from school... minus like an hour for homework...an hour for TV....i dont know how you guys do it all. granted, half of you are like 20 and have been around for a while, but i this thing in my mind where i cant help realizing that is just takes time for one to learn all this (i have somewhat of a compulsiveness when i get interested in something...i learn like 3/4 of the stuff a pro knows in like 1/3 the time) and it just digs and digs at my skin not knowing about a car show(s) or new release...although im usually pretty on top of those, or even concepts...but it just erks me a lil when i have to go and learn the setup of a huge and widely popular website changing every 2 hours (ala GT Planet) ....this page has settled my night. thanks.
 
Well PublicSecrecy, I wasn't really impressed with commercial vechicles at first because all I ever cared about were cars mostly. But about the best thing I liked about this auto show were a lot of the buses as well as some of the big semis. If you're impressed that many of us are into all sorts of machines and not just regular commuter vehicles, well, some of us are pretty dedicated. So it's nice of you to join a community where there are no real preference on how a car looks or performs, as long as it's a car or truck. So, I'm actually impressed myself.

Those of you into Big Truck racing (especially those of you in Europe), you may recall MAN racing around some of Europe's road racing tracks. With the website to MAN Truck and Bus that I've provided, you can look up the motorsports link and their motorsports success. Take a look at the "Narrow Track S with Reinex Watertechnic" special motor vehicle with the IAA Commercial Car site. I guess this seems pretty easy to get into if you're doing such work for what this thing can do.

A lot of my commercial vechicle talk has been about buses and motor coaches (of course, you're free to talk about whatever commercial vechicles interest you). As promised, here is a link with buses in Japan the description says that these are European buses in Japan. If you seen any double-decker buses in Europe, there are some double deckers here in Japan, but none that I've reviewed from this website: (http://busexplorer.com/Jindex.html).

And if you just want to view more buses (including school buses), just view the base site: (http://busexplorer.com). I'll probably talk more about the trucks that race professionally in Truck Racing. If you want to get an idea as to what I'm talking about, here is a GT4 thread I brought up as this should be the final link I'll provide in this reply: (https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=41186&page=3&pp=20)

That is all. Care to continue? You may.
 
heh...as for the 2004 model year the Dodge Sprinter holds 5 records:

Worst Acceleration.................................0-60: 13.1 sec
Worst Street Start...................................5-60: 14.3
Worst Quarter-Mile..................................19.0 sec @ 70 mph
Worst Top Speed....................................90 mph
Worst Roadholding, 300-foot-dia skidpad.....0.65G

But she can sure haul a lot of ass!
 
Yeah I know,

I dont actually mean the roads are "clogged", thats abit harsh but there are alot of large vehicles over there.
 
When I did my edit, by magic, "Motorsport Mundial" shows some truck racing. Not sure which track it is, though. Since it pretty much already happened, it's anyone's guess what this one is. I Thought it was Monza at first.

Ahem... commercial vehicles. Care to continue? Trucks? Semis? Trailers? Go ahead.
 
Normally when it comes to Auto Shows and Tokyo, you normally think of the Tokyo Auto Show. But since this topic isn't about that, Speed Channel recently shown the "World's Greatest Auto Shows: Tokyo." And of course, this is about the very last Tokyo show for commercial vechicles. Here are only a select number of them:

Commercial Makers Represented (I will attempt to find a general website):
Hino Motors, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Catepilar (as Shin Catepillar-Mitsubishi)

Hino 165 Hybrid, Hino Blue Ribbon City Non-Step Bus (concept), Hino IPT (Concept) Bus, Hino Concept L, Hino Ranger Moving Service Vechicle, Hino Ranger Fire Engine, Mitsubishi Fuso (Concept), Isuzu D-Max CAB 4, Isuzu GIGAMAX Cargo

Apparentely, Hino Motors is the top name in Japanese commercial vehicles. But I will work on finding an appropriate website for this deal.
 
Off-topic and just for fun:
* This episode of "The World's Greatest Auto Shows" shown off Gran Turismo 4. Still cannot wait for that bad boy. * NYC has 12,000 cab drivers, while downtown Tokyo has over 100,000 of them! * A Hummer on Japanese streets? Yeah, there' not tough to see. In fact, they take up the entire road! Good one, GM.
 
PublicSecrecy
heh...as for the 2004 model year the Dodge Sprinter holds 5 records:
Worst Acceleration.................................0-60: 13.1 sec
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The Dodge Durango 4WD V6 would give it one hell of a run. Or, more appropriately, one hell of a slow crawl.

But the slowest 2004 model is actually the Hyundai Santa Fe 2.4 AWD with the 4-speed automatic. The problem is, though Hyundai claims their existence, 98% of Santa Fe sales are one of the two V6s, meaning the other 2% are four-cylinders. As long as it's a four-cylinder automatic, though, it's not doing 0-60 in anything quicker than 14sec, regardless of the drivetrain.

Firebird
Your uncle is the exception, not the rule.
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Well then quit ignoring his correct assertion that our roads are filled with pickups while Australian and European roads have very little of them (and practically zero large pickups). That's why they say our roads are clogged with huge vehicles; it has nothing to do with commercial vehicles like you first said.

Plus, you quoted the unbelievably misleading statistic that the best-selling cars in Canada are the Honda Civic and Mazda 3. Lovely - now what are the best-selling vehicles in Canada?
 
PublicSecrecy
heh...as for the 2004 model year the Dodge Sprinter holds 5 records:

Worst Acceleration.................................0-60: 13.1 sec
Worst Street Start...................................5-60: 14.3
Worst Quarter-Mile..................................19.0 sec @ 70 mph
Worst Top Speed....................................90 mph
Worst Roadholding, 300-foot-dia skidpad.....0.65G

But she can sure haul a lot of ass!
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Hmm... 19 secs for the 1/4 mile isnt that bad for a van? its actaully good isnt it?
 
M5Power
Plus, you quoted the unbelievably misleading statistic that the best-selling cars in Canada are the Honda Civic and Mazda 3. Lovely - now what are the best-selling vehicles in Canada?
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GM J-bodies (Cavalier/Sunfire). About 100,000 of them a year. :P

After that?







Ford F-series...
Dodge Caravan...
Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra...

:D

But by far the highest selling segment of vehicles sold in Canada is compacts. And that was really the point I was making. If you add up the sales of compact cars they far outnumber the sales of large pickup trucks (a great deal of which go to fleet customers). And no, most Canadians do not own an entire household fleet of large light-duty trucks. The largest vehicle in my extended family is my '81 Chevrolet C20 Scottsdale reg. cab long box. After that, two Dakotas, a Caravan, an Intrepid, a first gen. Odyssey, my Lumina APV, a Taurus, my Spirit, my Cherokee, a Saturn SL, an Elantra, a Jetta, and two Echo sedans.
 
'99? 2000? Something like that. Belongs to a family member, not me, so I'm not quite sure on the year.

Very reliable though. Not a single problem.
 
We have bigger, but not that many to clog the roads.
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I think Sydney has more than it's fair share of semis going around including b-doubles. It can make the drive to work pretty 5hit.
Australia holds the record for the worlds longest road train. 114 trailers at 1.448 kilometers long. This was in October this year. Doug Gould took back the world record that had been taken from him 18 months earlier by a Queensland group who watched as Doug's drivers pulled the road train 1.5 kilometers.
http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s1222330.htm
Australia is a pretty vast country, it's not that much smaller than the USA but with a population of only 19 million people there is a lot of empty space, hence the need for the road trains and b-doubles to move goods interstate.
Here is a photo of a Falcon one tonne ute which is similar to the one I use for work.
 

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I should add that some of the machines at (the final) Tokyo Motor Show for Commercial Vehicles, some of the vehicles have handicap support. And I want to discuss these such vehicles in the future, but the Hanover and Tokyo shows on commercial vehicles impressed the hell out of me. I think among the commercial vehicles mentioned, I liked the buses.

As another bit of info, Catepillar commercial vehicles go under the name of Shin Catepillar-Mitsubishi (-Source, Autorotica: "The World's Greatest Auto Shows: Tokyo").
 

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