S3, E65 - Have You Heard? Truck News!

Have you heard? It's Truck News!

It's the Truck Show, with your host, Holman.

That's right, welcome back to the Truck Show Podcast. Have you heard? It is proudly brought to

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Please help me to keep it free by supporting our sponsors and leaving reviews and comments

on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Have you heard? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, a

whole lot has been going on when we took our new sabbatical over the past, I don't know

a couple of months. And I don't even know where to start. So I think for a little while,

we're going to do a little bit of current news and a little bit of catchy up news. So

in this episode, we have all sorts of stuff to talk about. And the first one is the Trump

Administration's proposed rollback of cafe standards. So there's a lot of opinion

out there and a lot of people who are bouncing the claims and what we're actually going

to get out of it this and that I thought SEMA had a really nice release on it. And I

think it, I think it kind of sets the right tone. So SEMA's release says President Trump

has announced plans to significantly rollback federal field economy standards to levels

established prior to the Biden administration, using the federal rulemaking process, the

US Department of Transportation proposes, relaxing federal field economy standards for

model year 22 through 31 light duty vehicles to 34.5 miles per gallon down from the 50.4

miles per gallon threshold set by the Biden administration under the proposed rulemaking,

and winding will be complete by 2031. Additionally, crossovers and small SUVs would be reclassified

as passenger vehicles rather than as light trucks. SEMA supports the proposed standards

which help automakers to produce vehicles that the marketplace demands. While after market

businesses are not subject to cafe standards, this proposal is expected to provide automakers

with a flexibility they need to produce the types of vehicles that are embraced by automotive

enthusiasts and are often modified. This policy shift follows the adoption of the one

big beautiful bill in July, which eliminates penalties, assess the automakers that fail

to meet the fuel economy targets. This represented a significant change in federal law and

reflects a broader move by President Trump and congressional Republicans to provide automakers

with greater flexibility to produce and sell vehicles based on consumer demands. It's

also a significant move away from previous federal policies that pushed OEMs and consumers

to favor electric vehicles over those with internal combustion engines. SEMA will review

the proposed cafe regulations and provide official comments to DOT on the proposal and

that comment deadline will be in mid-January. I think you guys know where I stand on

this, right? I want consumer choice. I don't think the federal government should necessarily

put their fingers on the scales and choose winners and losers when it comes to technology,

but there are a lot of opinions out there on this one. I'm glad to see it, but there's

an argument of $1,000 cheaper for a new vehicle on average versus saving $1,000 over the

vehicle's lifetime at the higher mile per gallon on fuel, but there's plenty of places

to get that commentary. Then there's also the protectionism argument of free market versus

tariffs. It's actually a pretty fasting debate if you dig down into it a little bit. Again,

I'm all for consumer choice, especially when it means killer enthusiast vehicles will

continue to be made. I'm in favor of this. I know there's probably some valid arguments

of why I shouldn't be, but I'm sorry, I like the V8s. I'm all for it, but I think this

is a win for automotive enthusiasts. On another SEMA note, this one is huge. You guys

remember I was talking about being at SEMA and moderated a panel on Ados. Ados is coming

in hard, it's coming in fast, and the way the regulations are sort of coming together

right now, it's possible we could hit Model Year 29, which is not that far away in Model

Year 26 starting right now, where you will not be able to modify your vehicle. This is

another major SEMA step here. SEMA put out a article on SEMA.org on the SEMA news page.

SEMA is celebrating the US House of Representatives introduction of the Ados Functionality and Integrity

Act, HB6688. SEMA worked closely with lawmakers from both parties to secure bipartisan support

for the legislation, which ensures that the aftermarket businesses have the information

needed to properly calibrate advanced driver assistance systems or Ados after vehicles

are modified. This legislation is critical to being able to safely make common modifications,

including installing bike racks, wrapping a vehicle, installing larger wheels and tires,

or installing a winch or aftermarket bumpers without compromising the functionality of Ados.

The bill is timely because a forthcoming federal mandate requires new Model Year 29 vehicles

feature automatic emergency braking, bringing important safety systems to all new vehicles

sold in the US. Now, the Ados Functionality and Integrity Act would require NITS of the National

Highway Traffic and Safety Administration to establish Ados guidelines to create modification

ranges and tolerances for new vehicles starting with the Model Year 28. Essentially, what

that means is rather than the manufacturer hoarding the data and saying, oh, no, we won't

tell you what the range that you have to work with is. When you modify a vehicle, let's

say if the sensors can be adjusted within a 4-inch lift and the manufacturer knows that

and the manufacturer says, well, check it out. We're going to keep that information to ourselves

so that we can sell the aftermarket lift kit or whatever and keep it in our dealerships

and not let the aftermarket get any and block them out. This law would require the manufacturers

to share that data so manufacturers on the aftermarket side know exactly what they can get

away with while keeping the vehicle safe and in compliance. If you remember when we had

so-called AutoGlass Kings on and they were talking about how adaptive cruise control

issues were popping up with a aftermarket windshield, which otherwise passed the optic

and clarity test. So it's going to get even worse than that. We talked about how sometimes

when you are adjusting those systems, there are ways to cheat it, some are dynamic, some

are static, some have a target that just sits out in the vehicle, sometimes people will

lower the air out of the tires so they can lower the lift vehicle closer to stock to get

the green check boxes, all that kind of stuff. So as you can see, this is really important

for the aftermarket to know what they're working with, right? And a little background

from SEMA, if you quick note, SEMA research indicates that more than 50 million cars

and trucks in the United States are modified or access rights each year. A number that

both underscores the urgent need for Ados standards that account real world vehicle modifications

and a significant number of consumers who modify their vehicles. SEMA has released a series

of white papers examining how aftermarket modifications affect Ados performance across

popular vehicles. These vehicles that they included were the Chevrolet Silverado 1500,

Ford F-150, Ford Bronco, Toyota Tacoma and the Ram 1500. That research provided clear

data-driven insight into how changes such as lift kits, wheels and suspension components influence

sensor reliability, the finding self-manufactures, installers and enthusiasts understand when

recalibrations needed and to preserve full Ados functionality. So SEMA once again is going

after legislation to make sure that the rules are in step with what the consumers demand

and also what's available and what's realistic from the technology we have. This is huge. We'll

stay on top of it here at the Truck Show podcast. As you guys know, this is something that

I brought up quite a bit and I don't know about you. I don't want to be three years away

from not being able to modify a vehicle. Now the other huge big giant story, Ford killed

off the F-150 Lightning. Dead. Gone. So if you've been following the news maybe not

from here because this happened, I think after we went on our news hiatus, Novelis, Ford's

aluminum supplier in New York had a huge fire. So Ford paused Lightning production, which

probably helped them out because they weren't selling. And basically said, hey, we're going

to make another shift of F-150 ice and hybrids. We're going to divert those resources over

there because of this aluminum shortage. We're not going to have enough to make the electric

truck as well. And guess what? December, it's coming back online. And nope, Ford puts out

a statement saying that the Lightning is forever discontinued, at least in its current

Bev form. Now, you know, the F-150 Lightning had some issues, mostly pricing. The truck

itself was pretty good, although at that size you get to this kind of delta of diminishing

returns of how big your battery pack has to be so that you can still get range while

towing and hauling and things like that. As an air hauler, as a everyday vehicle, they

were great. Lots to like about it. But they weren't great at doing truck things. So I think consumers

who wanted to personally use pickup really loved it and fleets and consumers who wanted

truck that could work. It wasn't enough. And the batteries just weren't big enough to make

you have over 150 miles range while towing, for example, things like that. So three and

a half years, the other issue was pricing. The pricing fluctuated all the time as did the

mix of trims and things like that. And it was a little bit confusing as they sort of tried

to get their ground. But this is an interesting quote from Doug Field, Ford's chief EV digital

and design officer. And he says quote unquote, the F-150 lighting is a groundbreaking product

that demonstrated an electric pickup can still be a great F series. Our next generation

lightning e rev is every bit is revolutionary. It keeps everything customers love 100% electric

power delivery sub five second acceleration and adds an estimated 700 plus mile range

and toes like a locomotive. It will be an incredibly versatile tool delivered in a capital

efficient way. So what does that tell you? Well, remember when we talked about ram dropped

their battery only bev ram 1500. And they said, nope, we're going with the extended range.

They called it a rave range extended electric vehicle. Ford calls it the e rev. So essentially

Ford is following ram's lead saying no more all electric pickup truck. We're going to go

with the one that's electric, but has a generator on board. Now keep in mind, it's not a hybrid

because that engine doesn't turn the wheels. It doesn't act on the drive frame. What it does

is it charges the battery and provides power to the motor. So still an all electric vehicle

and experience, but you can go to your local gas station to fill up the tank. That's where

ram's going. That's where scouts going. That's where Nissan's going. That's where Ford

is now going in vehicles that are the half 10 size or bigger. This really excites me.

I think this makes the most sense from a technology standpoint and getting the most performance,

but also capability out of the vehicle. There's a lot to like with EVs, but there's also

massive drawbacks, such as extended charging times and range, especially when you're maxing

out the capability. So I think this e rev version is the best of all the worlds, at least where

technology sits today. So now ram's gone e rev. Ford's going e rev. They will not have

a lightning next year. So if you want that truck, go buy it now because stocks are going to

dwindle on that and you can probably get a great deal. I would imagine. Where does that

leave GM? Because GM's really committed to the ultium platform. You've got the Hummer.

You've got the GMC Sierra and the Evalanche Silverado. Those are out there. They're going

to be kind of a loan with the battery only truck in that size. So it's going to be really

interesting to see lots of crazy stuff going on in the automotive world, especially when

it comes to battery vehicles. So one more note on Ford killing the electric pickup truck.

So while the next generation will come back with the range extender, they are pivoting to

hybrids and to gas engines. And that means that because of this EV bus, and I don't know

if this includes just the lightning, or if it also includes Mach E, which apparently

is still in production, but Ford is going to take a 19.5 billion as in B, billion dollar

charge to its bottom line and its books because of this EV decision. Dude, that was painful

is what the counting office is saying within the halls of Ford. So, but you know, sometimes

you take a big swing in business and sometimes you miss. I don't expect Ford to be on the

ropes long. They they know trucks and they know what their customers want. All right, next

up on news. Here's another big one that happened while we were away from doing news. And

that is the fact that Allison and GM are well breaking apart. So kind of interesting. Allison

back in. I want to say 2001 GM really was trying to make the Duramax engine a leader in

the diesel space. And they paired it with an Allison transmission from their medium duty

trucks as they really wanted Allison to bring that name and that durability recognition to

their vehicles. And then sometime in. If I had to think I want to say it's a 2018. And that's

when GM said, Hey, we're doing this 10 L 1000, which we developed in house with a little bit of

help from Allison. And it's a GM transmission, but we're going to call it a Allison transmission

on the badging. And so since 2020 plus, I think all the HD pickup trucks have all had the

Allison branded 10 speed transmission. So this is the announcement that came out. General Motors

license to use Allison transmission trademarks in connection with Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra

HD 2500, 300 trucks will expire at the end of the day on December 31st, 2025. Upon expiration,

all sub licenses to authorized dealers are also automatically terminated. Following expiration

the license agreement, GM and its authorized dealers are permitted a single 180 day period from

January 1st, 2026 through June 29th, 2026 to market, advertise and sell the remaining inventory

of products bearing the licensed Allison marks provided all such uses remain compliant with the

terms of the licensing agreement. What does this mean for you? Beginning with early December

production, Silverado and Sierra HD trucks will no longer be equipped with Allison badged

transmissions. As of this date, you must not create publish new advertising and marking materials

using Allison trademarks for newly produced Silverado and Sierra HDs that do not carry Allison badging.

You may however continue to market, advertise and sell on hand inventory that bears Allison

trademarks through the 180 day selldown window ending on June 29th, 2026. After that date,

any and all use of Allison marks to promote and sell Allison badged inventory must cease to that and

by June 29th, 2026, you must pull down all digital website references, remove point of sale

materials and discontinue publishing or advertising. Prior to June 29th, 2026, GM will initiate a field

action to retrofit any remaining Allison badged dealer inventory with a non Allison badged. Again,

this is required as GM dealers will not be permitted to advertise or sell new Allison badged inventory

after June 29th, 2026. More details will be shared at a later date. And so if you caught that thing at

the end, a field action, yes, GM is actually going to go not only on the production line and swap out

that Allison badged. They've also created those non Allison badges that are going to be going on

the ones that are in inventory on new trucks. So I don't know the full story of how the separation

happened. If it was something GM decided, hey, we're tired of having a third party on our trucks.

We know we make a great transmission. So we're going to get rid of that and just have everything

consumer facing point back to us. And that way there's no confusion in the marketplace.

Or if Allison said, hey, we're out or they just couldn't come to an agreement or it was planned,

I have no idea. But Allison will still be on the medium duty GM trucks. And so it'll be interesting

to see what effects if any of this has on the industry. I honestly don't think it matters anymore.

I think today's diesel trucks and trans are pretty darn good. They've come a long way in last

20 years. But that's a big one. I don't know if anyone saw that one coming or if it was on your

2025 bingo card. Hey, if you want to be a Oscar Meyer winner mobile driver or what they call a hot

dogger, until the end of January, Oscar Meyer is looking for a college graduate to want a full-time

job driving the winner mobile. I think they said they had six vehicles and 12 slots and they want

those 12 recent college grads to drive the 27 foot hot dog shaped trucks. And normally they say they

receive more than 5,000 annual applications, which is, that's a lot of people. And a couple of

quick facts coming from car and driver on the Oscar Meyer winner mobile. The original winner

mobile made his debut in 1936. Now they've got six hot dogs on wheels. The winners are 27 feet long

and based on ASUSU MPR HD cab over truck. But they've got a bunch of GM parts bin pieces and

components from a lot of performance vehicles like the C6 Corvette fifth generation Camaro 01 and the

Cadillac CTSV, although they don't tell us which ones they have. According to the listing hot

doggers are also expected to engage in media appearances and work as content creators. So

sounds like a fun job. I missed my calling. So maybe you could pick me up on that. But if you're

interested and you think you've got the skills to pilot the winner, then head over to Oscar Meyer.com

slash winner mobile. Nissan is exploring a bunch of body and frame vehicles including the return of

the Xtera and also making the pathfinder a body on frame SUV again, which I think would be awesome.

Here's a quote on the drive from the LA Auto Show where Nissan SVP Michael Souter exclusively told

the drive that the Xtera has got to start sub $40,000 and it's got to come in yellow, which I think

on both counts are awesome. If you know anything about the old Xtera, it was a great vehicle off road

at one four wheelers SUV of the year or four wheeler of the year, I guess more appropriately.

And if you're in the secondary market and you try and find an Xtera with the off road package,

which is the equivalent of the Nismo or the pro four X on the frontier, they are a hard to find

and be pretty darn pricey because everybody in the secondary market knows what a great vehicle that

is. So if you're going to bring a fun to drive sub $40,000 body on frame SUV, which can be

optioned with, well, a rear locker, 33s or better, sign me up. I mean, those things were awesome.

So what do they want the Xtera to be? Well, Souter continued the capability, fun, adventure,

hardening back to the original Xtera and that the Xtera needs to be very competent off road.

And yes, it will have a two-speed transfer case. So we think about body on frame, rear locker,

two-speed transfer case, most likely going to be built on the front tier platform, which is great

and see what happens. But I hope they make it a little bit asymmetrical like the original,

because it didn't look like anything else. It had a ton of personality. And the fact that they

want to bring it back in yellow is all the things that are right with the world. So I can't wait

for Nissan to finally give us some details on what the Xtera will be. I think it's coming out for the

27 or 28 model year. I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's coming. You go, Nissan.

Do it. You'll have buyers lined up because it's the vehicle that you need.

All right, one last news piece before we go today. Let's get into a recall.

All right, on this version of Have You Heard, the recall goes to the 2026 Ford Super Duty. So

looks like Ford had an issue where the right rear axle shaft may have been improperly

heat treated during manufacturing by its supplier. And of course, the broken rear axle shaft can

result in a loss of dry power, could have the vehicle roll away, loss of control, crash,

all those things. But Ford's not aware of any reports of accidents or injuries related

to the issue. And the fortunate thing is they caught it pretty quick. So the affected vehicles

are 26 Ford Super Duty F250 and 350 trucks produced between October 2nd and November 5th of 25. And it

only affects 6,819 vehicles. So the fix is dealers will inspect the right rear axle shaft

date code and replace the axle shaft as necessary free of charge. There'll be some communications

coming from forward beginning on January 5th. So you should get that in your mailbox if you had

the truck. Just for your reference, the recall number is 2, 5, s, d8. And you can call

Ford customer service or your local dealer to get your truck scheduled for an inspection.

All right, well, that's the end of this episode of Have You Heard. We got a lot more news,

we got days of this stuff. So expect a few more podcasts coming out soon. Don't forget,

please follow us on social at Truckshow podcast or email us if you want to be part of the show.

Truckshow podcast at gmail.com. And of course, we'd love to hear you 657 205 6105 leave a message on

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Looking forward to doing it again soon.

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S3, E65 - Have You Heard? Truck News!

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