MP10 engine leads local Mack fightback

Mack Trucks Australia says its own MP10 powerplant is spearheading a resurgence in sales in the local heavy-duty market

The local 2012 launch of Mack’s own engine, the MP10, has seen a 200 per cent increase in sales of the SuperLiner and Titan product lines in Australia, proving the contention that lack of a manufacturer’s engine was holding Mack sales back at the heavy end of the market.

Mack trucks in Australia have been available only with OEM engines since the demise of the Mack V8 back in 2001, thanks to a change in corporate ownership, an ‘over-pushed’ block and tightening emission regulations. Customers were subsequently forced to choose OEM engines, the popular choices at the heavy end being units from Cat or Cummins.

Customers’ options contracted again when Navistar stopped supplying engines to anyone outside of its own Cat/Navistar family, with a loss of market share for Mack the end result.

The launch of the 600/685hp MP10 engine two years ago had the Mack aficionados barking. Then it became known there wasn’t a manual transmission to handle the torque produced by these new powerplants. Having to accept an automated transmission had previously excited bulldog chasers mumbling into their International Roast at truckstops across the nation…

“But they changed their minds once they got their hands on an mDrive,” said Mack Australia boss, Dean Bestwick.

And that indeed seems to be the case, with many operators telling this writer that while they wouldn’t consider an auto transmission under any circumstances, sampling a demo MP10 soon changed their minds.

“Bloody hell, it changes gears exactly where I would,” Mack tragic Jim Hair told me in a late-night phone call. Jim’s change of mind led to the purchase of an MP10-powered Titan (pictured) that hasn’t stopped working day and night to deliver hay to drought-ravaged outback Queensland.

The fuel economy of the MP10 has been the talk of the highways, with many operators getting double-digit percentage improvements over the equivalent Cummins.

The take-up of the mDrive has been significant. “Our mDrive sales are now at 80 per cent of our truck build,” said Bestwick. “mDrive and the MP8 and MP10 engines have driven our product revitalisation over 2012/13,” he added.

In something of a rarity for Mack, this ‘revitalisation’ of the brand has also seen a change in the Mack logo. Referencing the bulldog and typography of the truck itself, the new logo now shows a more upright, alert bulldog, replacing the squat scrapper of the past.

Already spreading through North American dealerships, the new-look logo will be turning up at a dealership near you over the next year or two.

MP10 engine leads local Mack fightback

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