THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

Nov/Dec 2009

The latest out of China, the Kinland DFL 430.

East and West came together at Gerotek to launch a new truck onto the South African market. Called the Kinland DFL 420, it arrived under an agreement between DFM Warrior Trucks and China’s Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company. Patrick O'Leary was there.

To be honest, when I was invited to the launch of a new Chinese heavy vehicle, I wasn’t all that excited. After all, although the Chinese have made some inroads into our market – think FAW, Powerstar and even DFM Warrior - they have certainly not lit any fires when it comes to trend setting innovations or technological breakthroughs, either locally or internationally.

Rather, through various mergers with European, American and Japanese companies, the Chinese have tended to follow rather than lead; to incorporate rather than innovate. In China itself, the trucking companies have certainly made their presence felt in a big way but I have always regarded this as being born from monolithic-type, internally focussed operations that cater to volumes before quality and to sales before service.

With this as background, I sat down with a rather sceptical view as the presentation began. As expected, the audience was told how huge Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company is back in China. Sure it’s huge. With just over 1,3-billion people living there, everything is huge in China. So while the scale of the home-based company was impressive as a point of interest, it was not entirely unexpected – or even that relevant. We have, after all, seen companies which are huge in their home markets fail dismally when trying to penetrate the South African market. I think of Mack Trucks as just one example.

What was unexpected though was when the name ‘Nissan Motor Company’ cropped up as having entered into a joint venture with the company in June 2003. It was through this tie-up that Dongfeng Motor Company Limited was established.

Also getting an unexpected mention was the long tie up with Cummins Inc. going back to 1996 when a 50/50 joint venture saw the creation of the Dongfeng Cummins Engine Company. By August 2007, this joint venture company celebrated the production of its 1-millionth engine in China.

DFM Warrior, if you do not know, is a local South African company which has been assembling, marketing and selling the DFM Warrior range of trucks in South Africa since it signed an agreement with Dongfeng Motor Company to do so back in 2002. Eiiish! There’s too many names in among all this. We need a brand name here. What am I buying?

That aside, after the presentation, it was off to the Gerotek high-speed test track for the unveiling of the new Kinland DFL 420 model. As the red veil was pulled off the cab, we all gave a bit of a gasp. What a good looker. Nothing shabby about this cab and the thought extended to under the skin as well with the DFL 420 being powered by the dCi11 six cylinder 420hp engine matched to a ZF 16S-221 16 speed Ecosplit gearbox.

Although the launch was more about first impressions than in-depth evaluation, it must be said that first impressions were most favourable and this extended beyond the exterior looks to the spacious and comfortable cab. I expected the cab to be a little small and spartan. After all, your average Chinese citizen is not exactly your average towering giant. But, quite the opposite is what you get.

The cab is wonderfully spacious with lots of storage space and extra goodies like air-conditioning to make the life of the driver comfortable. Interesting is that the cab has also undergone crash tests back in China and meets with the European standards for occupant protection in the event of a smash. Good stuff!

All this said, we need more detail in terms of the local set-up for the road ahead. There was not enough time or opportunity at the launch to get those details so FleetWatch will be visiting DFM Warrior to probe a little deeper into the issues that are of interest to the operator when considering whether to buy or not - service and back-up being just two areas that need more discussion.

Until then, there is a saying: “You only have one chance to make a good first impression”. The Kinland DFL 430 had that chance at Gerotek – and the impression it made was a good one.