I took my sons to Louisville zoo saturday to see Bob the Builder and they had some equipment on display. One thing caught my eye, a funny looking contractor van with a european looking front end. I stood in line wandering what it was when I noticed ram heads on the wheel center caps. I went over to sneak a peak under the hood to see, what I hope will not be our worst nightmare..... A 150 h.p. Mercedes deisel. I've heard rumors that the Mercedes is whats to come for our trucks. Someone please say it isn't so!!

 

I don't know if it is to come so to speak...but Mercedes has made some of the best diesels forever! It is hard to accept new ideas, but someday, their might be something better than a Cummins and I would rather it come from Germany/Mercedes than Japan/Izuzu.

 

Dont put off those Germans! They are some smart people. Plus I think that Mercedes builds a better diesel for economy to power ratio than anyone plus they are all 1,000,000 mile motors! Just go try to buy a new big rig, Guess what your options are now? MERCEDES! 450 HP, quiet and efficient! I dont know about all the big rig manufactuers but I think that its friegtliner that the only motor you can get in their trucks is Mecedes, no more Cat, Cummins, or Detroit. One more thing, Just look at the Autobond, The Germans are making luxury 5,000lb cars that cruise at about 180-200 mph. Heck we can barely make a hot rod performance car do that.

 

It's only scheduled to come out in the Sprinter van for years to come (at least until 2007, when I think the Cummins contract will need to be renewed).

Dodge Sprinter Specs

 

And remeber those performance sedans get 20+ mph going that fast too! My mother's S500 averages 24 mpg in the city and it is fast as hell. Surpisingly she has a lead foot!

 

3rd_ram,

The sprinter van engine has nothing to do with the Cummins pickup engine. It is a five cylinder and way smaller. No way it will show up in a full sized Ram as a replacement for Cummins. What is wrong with Mercedes engines? They are famous for making very long lived and reliable diesels.

Wetspirit

 

I was at an agricultural outlet today and Mercedes already has engines in some farm equipment over here.

 

mercedes makes a fine diesel engine however in frieghtliners mercedes is not the only avalible engine. in the road tractor market cat owns about 45% of the market cummins 35% detroit 10% and volvo 8% the other 2% includes mack mercedes and alternative fuel engines. mercedes has long powered farm equpiment in the USA in massey ferguson combines and clauss choppers. but europe should be far more worried about cummins takeing over thier markets as all fiat diesels are cummins designed enngines and europe is often used as a testing ground for new technologies because thier emissions limits are generally lower than ours are. and if you see a combine that isn't green or yellow it cummins powered and case new holland tractors are cummins powered bottom line don't worry we will not see it whatever they can do we can do it better its has long been proven

 

we just got a new frieghtliner fire truck in our dept that came with a 300 horse mercedes. Very good engine, smooth good power and the best part........it sounds just like my Cummins!!

 

We just took delivery of 5 new Freightliners ...Detroit series 60 -475 hp. Yes , they had to meet emmissions to , it has cat. converter .

 

Was at the Freightliner dealer getting an oil filter for my Ram. The parts guy said that for Freightliner, Cummins is no longer an option. At least in the medium duty for sure. Just Cat, Detroit and Mercedes.

 

Just my $.02, but in my travels over the last 2 months I've been told by 5 (yes five) different Dodge territory reps that when the new 4500 and 5500 series come out to compete with the like series Superduty Fords that Mercedes will either be the only choice or at very least an option. Hard to believe that 5 different reps had the same rumor spewing from thier mouthes.

-Richard

 

Autobahn. Means Auto way or route.

They don't cruise at 180-200. They're lucky to top out at those speeds. More like 120 cruise, maybe 150. Yes, there are cars that can and do go faster, but cars just don't cruise at 180+. Shoot, the fastest cars in the world top out at 240 or so, so those might cruise in that range, but those are the 300K McLaurens and the like. Not in the budget of your typical autobahn driver.

One source says that "most large car manufacturers follow a gentlemen's agreement by artificially limiting the top speed of their cars to 250 km/h (155mph) for safety reasons (inexperienced drivers and risk of tire failure especially when underinflated)." It goes on to say that the limiters are easily removed and speeds of 185 aren't uncommon.

A couple of other tidbits about the Autobahn: it's ILLEGAL to run out of gas on the autobahn. You get a ticket your stupidity.
They expect you will drive right and pass left. No slowpokes sitting in the left lane. And no passing on the right. Finally, I love the speed limit signs for TANKS on the road!

If you're curious:
http://home.att.net/~texhwyman/autobahn.htm
http://www.serebella.com/encyclopedi...-Autobahn.html