page_title: Freightliner Trucks
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Freightliner Trucks / History / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: Montgomery, Alabama, July 11, 2005 -- Semi-tractor trailer trucks at Maxwell Air Force Base filled with bottled water are awaiting their final destination. FEMA and others from all over the U.S. are responding to those affected by Hurricane Dennis. FEMA Photo/Mark Wolfe
context_page_description: Freightliner Trucks is an American truck manufacturer. Founded in 1929 as the truck-manufacturing division of Consolidated Freightways, the company was established in 1942 as Freightliner Corporation. Owned by Daimler AG since 1981, Freightliner is a part of Daimler subsidiary Daimler Trucks North America.
  Freightliner produces a range of vans, medium-duty trucks, and heavy-duty trucks; under its Freightliner Custom Chassis subsidiary, the company produces bare chassis and cutaway chassis for multiple types of vehicles. The company popularized the use of cabover semitractors, with the Freightliner Argosy later becoming the final example of the type sold in North America.
  The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon; vehicles are currently manufactured in Cleveland and Mount Holly, North Carolina and Santiago Tianguistenco and Saltillo, Mexico.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the 21st century, Freightliner was part of DaimlerChrysler, following the 1998 merger of its parent company with Chrysler; several changes in 2000 were made by the merged company that affected Freightliner.  Canadian-based Western Star Trucks, a premium truck manufacturer was acquired in its entirety, giving Freightliner a third truck brand (along with assembly plants in Kelowna, British Columbia, and Ladson, South Carolina).  Originally an entity of General Motors, DaimlerChrysler acquired Detroit Diesel, integrating its operations within Freightliner.
  Coinciding with the fragile economy, Freightliner was awash in used trucks it could not sell; following the rapid expansion of the previous decade, Freightliner was left with multiple poor-performing operations outside of its core truck brand which was in decline in a poor economy.  Seeking new leadership, DaimlerChrysler installed former company CFO to begin a turnaround for Freightliner.  By 2002, the Kelowna Western Star plant was closed (shifting to Portland), along with a Thomas facility in Woodstock, Ontario (consolidating entirely to High Point).
  For 2002, the Freightliner product line underwent multiple updates.  For the medium-duty segment, Freightliner introduced a second generation of the Business Class, the Business Class M2, ranging from Class 5 to Class 8 severe-service conventionals.  In place of the cab derived from Mercedes-Benz, the M2 was designed entirely by Freightliner.  The Century Class model family was expanded further, debuting the Freightliner Coronado premium conventional.  Styled similar to the FLD132 Classic XL, the Coronado shared its cab structure and technology with the Century Class and Columbia, marketed towards owner-operators.  In a further expansion of the vocational model line, the Freightliner Condor was introduced as the first low-entry COE; competing with the Autocar Xpeditor, the Condor was developed nearly entirely for refuse applications.
  In the early 2000s, the operations of Freightliner subsidiaries would undergo multiple changes.  Following the acquisition of Western Star Trucks, Freightliner consolidated production of American LaFrance in the previous Western Star plant in Ladson, South Carolina; the attempt to integrate  production of specialized emergency vehicles into a company noted for high volume production capabilities proved unworkable.  While remaining the fifth-largest manufacturer in the emergency vehicle segment, American LaFrance was sold in 2005 to private equity fund, with DaimlerChrysler retaining ownership of the Ladson factory.
  For 2006, the Sprinter van underwent a redesign (for the first time); final assembly shifts to the former American LaFrance facilty in Ladson, South Carolina.  While sold nearly exclusively as a cargo van, the Freightliner Sprinter is also offered as a passenger vehicle (alongside Dodge and Mercedes-Benz Sprinters).
  After 2006 production, Freightliner ended sales of the Argosy cabover in North America.  The first company to produce a fully tilting cab, Freightliner was the final truck manufacturer in North America to offer a Class 8 cabover.  The Argosy remains in production in North America, sold exclusively for export.
  In the summer of 2007, DaimlerChrysler was split, with the Freightliner parent company reorganizing itself as Daimler AG.  Freightliner begins production of trucks in Saltillo, Mexico.  On January 7, 2008, Freightliner LLC was renamed Daimler Trucks North America, LLC (DTNA), operating as the parent company of the Freightliner Trucks brand, alongside Sterling, Western Star, Detroit Diesel, and Thomas Built Buses.
  For 2008, the company introduced Freightliner Cascadia, a new-generation Class 8 conventional.  Intended as the successor to the Century Class and Columbia, the Cascadia consolidated the two model lines; while styled as a scaled-up M2, the Cascadia was optimized for fuel economy, safety, and reliability.  Within the vocational model line, the Condor low-entry COE was discontinued.
  In 2009, Freightliner began production of natural gas ver
caption: Freightliner Columbia (left) and Century Class (right)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Montgomery, Alabama, July 11, 2005 -- Semi-tractor trailer trucks at Maxwell Air Force Base filled with bottled water are awaiting their final destination.  FEMA and others from all over the U.S. are responding to those affected by Hurricane Dennis.  FEMA Photo/Mark Wolfe", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:07:11 21:04:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "544", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1306", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6195", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:07:11 16:44:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:07:11 16:44:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "145", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3008", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1180", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "217", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}