| CNN.com: Home Page - | International Edition - |  |
MXT: When a Hummer isn't monster enoughTowering over other gas guzzlers and too large for most garages, the MXT is the third version of a heavy-duty truck from Navistar unit for consumers.February 8, 2006; Posted: 1:20 p.m. EST (1820 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - If you laugh in the face of high fuel prices...if nothing makes you happier than looking down on those tiny Hummers and F-250 Super Duty pickups...and if you don't have six figures to spend...International Truck has a ride for you. The company is set to take the wraps off a new, slightly smaller, slightly cheaper offering in its line of monster pickup trucks. Thursday at the Chicago Auto Show, the unit of Navistar (Research) will unveil its latest consumer version of a medium duty truck, the MXT. At 7-1/2 feet high, it's still 16 inches taller than the Hummer's H3, and 8 inches taller than the larger H2. It also has a towing capacity -- up to 8 tons -- large enough to haul a fully loaded H2, plus anything the H2 is able to drag behind it. In addition, the MXT has a two-ton payload capacity, enough to hold the weight, if the not the dimensions, of any compact SUV. Still, the MXT is 18 inches shorter than the CXT, the original monster pickup from International Truck, which first rolled out in 2004. The CXT was based on the platform used for dump trucks and cement mixers. The second converted commercial truck in the series, the RXT, started life as a beverage delivery truck or tow truck. Unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show last year as a consumer vehicle, the RXT is due to hit International Trucks' 300 dealers in March. The company believes the most attractive option is the fifth-wheel in the bed, similar to the hitch used on a tractor-trailer, that will allow it to tow large trailers up to 14,500 pounds. "On the RXT we believe there's going to be a lot more interest from the equestrian-RV-boating crowd," said Al Saltiel, vice president of marketing for International Truck. Low investment productInternational Truck has sold about 300 of the CXT, above the company's initial expectations. But then it increased those expectations to 500 to 1,000 total sales by the end of 2005. Still, Saltiel said the company can make a profit on these models no matter how few they sell, because of they are just getting incremental revenue above their solid base of more traditional commercial vehicle sales. "They're low-investment products," said Saltiel. "The original CXT was a couple of guys who spent a couple thousand dollars putting a pickup bed on a dump truck. We never had expectations we'd sell more than 100." Saltiel said the company therefore is trying not to make sales projections for the MXT or the RXT, although he said the lower price for the MXT should allow it to have sales roughly equal to the RXT and CXT combined in the future. The MXT will start at $69,900, and get up to about $85,000 fully loaded. That's comparable to the Land Rover Range Rover HSE or bit above the asking price for a fully loaded Cadillac Escalade. The RXT will range in price from just under $80,000 to about $100,000. The CXT fully loaded with leather seats, a DVD player and other creature comforts, goes for about $120,000, Saltiel said. Despite being short enough for many of its buyers to be able to reach up to put their Starbucks cup on its roof, the MXT will still have trouble fitting into most suburban garages. The typical garage door is only 7-feet tall. Even if the owner buys a taller garage door, the real problem could be the length of the MXT -- 20 feet, 8 inches, or almost 2 feet longer than the Excursion SUV that Ford stopped making last year. And it is almost four feet longer than the H2. Fuel economy estimates aren't yet available, but figure you'll be spending a fair amount at the gas pump, or rather the diesel pump, since all three of these offerings run only on the fuel used by their even bigger cousins. The CXT gets about 8 to 10 miles per gallon. But with a 70 gallon fuel tank it could have about the cruising range of a Toyota Prius hybrid. For more from the Chicago Auto Show, click here.
|
|
|||||||||||||
