While at the Perth truck Show last week I learnt that the West Australian CAT distributor WESTRAC has been calling its customers asking them to hold off buying new trucks with OEM engines other than CAT on the basis that "CAT will soon be back in on highway trucking within 12-18 months. For those that are buying new trucks WESTRAC reps are offering to buy back the alternative OEM brand engine when fitted and replacing it with a CAT product at a highly attractive price structure.  They also claim the CAT branded truck is a reality and will be on sale within 12-18 months in Australia.

All this suggests that everyone in the US is running on a different rail line than we expected and that none of us knows what Navistar/Cat is likely to do next. Of course it might also suggest that CAT and Westrac is running a very dangerous course. Have you heard anything on this and are you able to shed some additional dim light on the subject.

Interesting stuff, but what does it all mean?