Navistar to idle 500 in Indy

Keith Browning · May 21, 2008

A Hit by falling demand for Ford diesel pickups, International Truck and Engine will temporarily stop diesel production Friday at its Eastside Indianapolis engine plant, idling 500 workers through mid July, UAW Local 98 bargaining chairman Roland Rusie said today.

The plant supplies diesels for Ford pickups. Ford truck sales have slumped because of soaring fuel prices.

It is closing its pickup plant at Louisville, Ky., for one month.

In Indianapolis, International is tentatively set to resume diesel output on July 14, the end of the regularly scheduled three-week summer shutdown.

About 100 employees will continue working in International’s machine shop.

Next door, International Casting, the company’s the 550-employee foundry, will continue operations without layoffs, said Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley.

International is the operating arm of Warrenville, Ill.-based Navistar International.

Tony302600 · May 21, 2008

Yikes

Brad Clayton · May 21, 2008

Sounds like the cinemaplexes will be booming. When things were dead at my old dealer, and it would be 110 degrees out, we would sneak off and catch a movie.

One morning the power was out. Four of us jumped in a car and went to the Greenville mall. We stopped in at the arcade center and they had this brand new sitdown motorcycle race game. The cost was like 75 cents which was a lot in the mid 90's, but the kicker was the door was left open on the game. We dumped all the tokens out on the floor and played that thing for hours.....no charge. We ate at the food court and stopped by the local hot rod shop on the way back and still made it back in time for the power to get going.

Ahhhh best day at work that I can remember.

LARRY BRUDZYNSKI · May 22, 2008

Gotta love arcade employee's, they hire the young or you know...

Jim Warman · May 22, 2008

I almost wonder if we just couldn't see the writing that must surely have been on the wall... Crude hit over $135/barrel today and THAT has to be some sort of wake up callfor all those wieners that couldn't live without a big diesel pick up sitting in the driveway.

Notice on some of the public forums that guys are worrying about the resale value of their trucks because of high fuel costs.

Through my years, I have seen automobile fads come and go - pony cars started small but didn't take long to get the biggest engine in the line-up... and we all had to have one. Boogie vans - you weren't cool if you didn't have a boogie van. There's always been "that" auto that everybody wanted and most everybody had.

More recently, there was the minivan craze... all you ever saw on the roads...

And we come to the latest fad. Could this mark the end of the era of big pick ups for Joe Average? No more diesel Excursions sitting at the mall?

Keith Browning · May 22, 2008

Perhaps something smaller? Motor Trend has spy shots of a new Lincoln Navigator with a funny looking twin tipped tailpipe. They also report that there are also F150 test mules running around with the same tailpipe. Could these be the new gotta have trend or will they even make it to production? I have read that manufacturers are holding off and waiting to see what happens with this fuel crisis... is the added power and economy of the diesel enough to sell or will the record high prices for diesels kill what until now was a highly anticipated power plant for smaller trucks?