Toyota trucks And Daimler have consummated a deal that creates a merged truck company in Japan. Each owns 25% of a group that includes Hino and Fuso trucks. I wonder how this will affect the commercial trucks sold in the US. I don’t see many of either on the road, though there are plenty of dealers in the US.
Seems like a Euro and Asian truck makers would be a formidable partnership in much of the world. Very few places run semi-trucks as big as ours in North America. Australia does… and even bigger with road trains.
These two would be strong alliance.
Europe has big trucks too. When we were in Germany in 2003 we saw road trains between Hanover and Berlin.
The typical semi I saw in Germany was about and 8/10s scale version of our old cab-over semis. I remember seeing double trailers but no triples. Do you remember seeing any triples?
We have doubles in the US but they are not common.
I was surprised in Europe that all the semis I saw were cab-over, none with the long hood like in the US. Guess that comes with narrow roads and congested cities.
I don’t recall triples, but I remember lots of doubles. The cab over tractors were almost all Volvos with some Daimler trucks too.
Also, MAN is a major European builder of big commercial trucks.
Now that you mention it, I remember seeing MAN tractors. It’s been almost 22 years since that trip and I’ve forgotten a lot.
One thing I haven’t forgotten is the trip from Amsterdam to Heslingen when we arrived. My FIL grew up there. We rented a 9 passenger van, I drove and my FIL was in the drinker’s seat. When we crossed the border into Germany, there was road work and all traffic was diverted. After getting off the highway we quickly pulled into a parking lot. My FIL started talking with a policeman, in English. Everyone speaks English in Germany (almost). My FIL had some trouble finding the English words he wanted. The cop had a huge grin on his face. My FIL finally confided the language problem he was having and I said why don’t you tell him in German. My FIL forgot he spoke German. After he used his native language, he didn’t have problems communicating anymore. What a hoot!
As long as this doesn’t affect the Tacoma/Tundra trucks I’m good… lol