White Trucks

[Hank R]

Did White Motor Truck own Western Star Trucks , Diamond-T Trucks and Autocar Trucks at one time in the 1970's ? My pea brain is not adding up as to who owned what in the late 60's and 70's

 

[RZucker]

Did White Motor Truck own Western Star Trucks , Diamond-T Trucks and Autocar Trucks at one time in the 1970's ? My pea brain is not adding up as to who owned what in the late 60's and 70's

Yes, at one time they were all tied into White Motors. Don't forget REO too.

 

[mitch504]

And Freightliner was a White brand, too.

There are still a couple of White farm tractors still working around here.

 

[RZucker]

And Freightliner was a White brand, too.

There are still a couple of White farm tractors still working around here.

Actually White was just marketing the Freightliners.
At one time Euclid Offroad trucks were owned by White after GM was forced to break up their construction equipment division by Bobby Kennedy's DOJ.

 

[Truck Shop]

Reo Motors was purchased by Bohn Aluminum & Brass Corp in 1954 and later on in the 50's became a division of White Motors, Then in 1967 Reo combined with Diamond T.
White took over sales and service of Freightliner in 1951 to 1975. Auto Car became a division of White in 1963. Western Star was a brand White developed on it's own.

 

[bam1968]

Did White discontinue one of the other brands when they developed Western Star?

 

[Truck Shop]

No, White had a bunch of irons in the fire and sales of the Diamond REO's just weren't that good so it pushed the Star. But in those early years for Western Star parts were a long wait.

 

[Steve Frazier]

White sold off Diamond Reo and they became an independent brand. They didn't last much more than 10 years on their own. Shortly after White was bought by Volvo who later acquired the GM heavy truck division. The 1990 White truck I drove was badged White/GMC and had a diagonal grill bar like Volvo. There were smaller Volvo emblems on it as well. I've never seen a truck with such an identity crisis before! I don't think the White brand lasted much beyond that

 

[Truck Shop]

Diamond REO lasted a total of eight years, White sold it in 1969 IIRC. And those A-Cars were Volvo's also in the late 80's early 90's. That Volvo Cab was about the most uncomfortable pos
to set in and drive{if only one block}.

 

[Steve Frazier]

They didn't hold up well either. The first group they bought in '87 had to go back to White and have plates installed inside the upper door opening, they had all cracked terribly in that area. The subsequent years had the plates factory installed. I had been driving Ford L-9000 before that, I didn't care for these White's at all. They also had the L10 at 300hp vs. the 855 300hp in the Fords. That's another thing, they had to go back for new radiators too, the L10s kept blowing head gaskets from overheating. After 3 years of the White, they went back to the L-9000

 

[Truck Shop]

That and the famous dash/gauges that the circuit board would crack/ gauges wouldn't read right dash lights would go bright then dim then out.

 

[92U 3406]

Those Volvo Autocars were one hell of a tough truck though (IIRC they were similar, if not the same as the WhiteGMC). My old man owned one for a few years and that truck made a Kelowna-built Western Star look like a sissy truck.

 

[bam1968]

I had a 1990 (I'm pretty sure it was a 1990) Volvo that I bought @ 1995 that was one of the most trouble free trucks that I have owned. 60 series detroit and a 9 speed. I didn't care to drive it but the older gentleman that drove it was in love with it. He was a really good driver which was probably a big part of it being so trouble free....