These are being built in Texas. Scottwax, you should probably start thinking about your rates for one (although I know you do some big vehicles already). And all you pros might want to get one for work. You'd certainly get noticed, it can hold a hell of a water tank, and you would have no further need for a stepladder on SUVs--just use the bed.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor.../us_auto_truck
CHICAGO (AFP) - Move over Hummer, the monster truck is coming.
General Motors Corp.'s uber-sport utility, the Hummer, has been the biggest and baddest passenger truck on the US market to date, but it may soon be getting some outsized competition in the form of the CXT.
Modeled after commercial haulage trucks and dump trucks, the CXT will be the world's biggest production pick-up truck when it goes on sale later this year, its makers said Monday.
The brainchild of International Truck and Engine Corp., a manufacturer of commercial trucks and mid-range diesel engines, the CXT has been conceived of as a industry-worthy truck with some of the consumer comforts of passenger pick-ups.
The CXT combines towing, dumping and tilt bed capability with 220 hp and 540 lb.-ft. of torque. At six tons, its hauling capability is three times the payload of consumer pick-up trucks.
Buyers will be able to customise their new set of wheels with a leather interior with wood grain trim, reclining captain chairs, a fold-down bench that can be used as a bed, a DVD, and a rear-mounted camera for increased visibility behind the vehicle.
But none of this comes cheap: the truck will retail for 95-100,000 dollars -- about the double the price of a Hummer SUV.
The CXT is slated for a soft launch in the fourth quarter of this year, with a full roll-out in 2005, a spokesman for International Truck and Engine Corporation said Monday.
The company plans to build between 600 and 1,000 units next year at its plant in Garland, Texas and it's hoping that the vehicle will find customers among tradesmen like landscapers, carpenters, and brick or stone contractors, and home builders.
"The International CXT is a truck for businesses that want to promote themselves as much as perform," said Rob Swim, a spokesman for International Truck and Engine Corporation. "If you brought this truck to the playground, you'd be king of the dirt pile."
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