The 145 saga
Page 28
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Your editorial (CM October 12) is very much to the point but confusing in interpretation.
You feel that Leyland Vehicles are staking their future on T45 and therefore failure of T45 simply means the end of LV.
T45 will not be trouble free and reasonable men would not expect it to be so. How then shall we interpret T45's performance?
The factors you mention — i.e. the machine, its construction, production in volume, spares for after sales service, documentation, education of sales and after-sales staff — these all constitute the broad franchise packet provided you agree to include two other factors: finance and commitment.
The success of a product no longer depends on just the product. If it did we would still be using "favoured traders.Lar: gely it depends on commitment by people and facilities to the concept of the total franchise package made viable through reasonable volume performance and economics.
The people involved in this circle of fortune (or fate) know that to survive they must be positive and extol the virtues of the product and play down the failures.
Transport managers who have put their reputations as good judges of transport on the line when they purchase any manufacturer's product are loath to broadcast any failures that occur except to the ears of someone they know can help.
Regrettably, other individuals involved ranging from distributor staff to manufacturers' staff have also had their personal reputation and credibility severely shaken over the past few years.
Some have opted out rather than go through it all again — others have been pushed out, apparently because there was no way forward using the old cast singing from new hymn sheets — even with the best product in the truck world.
This is not to deny that the quality of the product is fun damental to the future success of LV but no more so than the organisation of the company and the degree of commitments of its franchise holders.
Were it not so how could we accept as a basis for a solution to LV's future the fact that T45 will contain a rather elderly power unit knowing as we do that the guts of any truck is its motor.
Admittedly, the performance of this elderly motor in T45 was predictable from Marathon per formance, but Southall is no longer with us and new people unused to the engine are res ponsible for builiing it at Leyland. A learning curve now exists and new techniques are being employed and old discarded so it must start life with a question mark over its reliability and in due course its durability.
If you really want to know how good a vehicle T45 is you must be prepared to ignore the pre-production test results and wait for the production line models to hit the road.
It is in this area that LV needs all the friends they ca.n get to help them get right back to the top of the league from whence they should never have slipped. JOHN T. HAINES, Wiltshire, Blackburn, Lancs.