Penske people must be a patient lot, especially in our part of the world. For the best part of a decade, they’ve waited and waited, and waited some more, for their Star to do what stars generally do best – shine brightly!
Yet, for reasons seemingly mired in a motley mix of corporate complexity and fiscal fate, Western Star has largely failed to fire since 2013. That was the year, of course, when charismatic motoring mogul and billionaire businessman Roger Penske secured Western Star in the $219 million purchase of Transpacific’s commercial vehicle group. Ever since, the brand has slid steadily to the lowest rungs on the heavy-duty sales ladder.
As the saying goes though, ‘all good things come to those who wait’ and for Penske Australia, the waiting game is finally over following the recent launch of Western Star’s much anticipated X-series range. Indeed, not since the local release of Western Star’s abidingly revered Constellation models almost 25 years ago when the brand was still under the ownership of the fiercely astute Terry Peabody, has there been so much justifiable excitement, expectation and even emotion surrounding the arrival of a new Star.
Then again, as exuberant Penske Australia executives were quick to emphasise at Brisbane’s Mt Cotton mobility centre during the most comprehensive and professional new model launch attended in several years, the X-series is like no other Western Star before it. Nor, they insist, has any Western Star ever been tested to the same extent as X-series and equally, no Western Star range has ever had the potential to cover so many applications as X-series.
Put simply, the platform has been poured for arguably the most ambitious and competitive assault on the heavy-duty conventional truck market seen in a long time, and with it,
