If I were in your position, I would strongly consider taking on the line. Through out the last several years Komatsu is and has been manufactured and then Marketed under several different brand names, including AC, Kalhmar, Tusk, just to name a few. There may be more "Population" in your APR than you realize depending on how strong those other brands had been in you market.

While Komatsu has not been a major player in the forklift industry, their reputation on the heavy equipment side is excellent, and "Komatsu" is a recogonizable brand Name.

Who hasnt been driving to work, sitting in a construction traffic jam and not seen a Komatsu Excavator holding up the traffic. On the other hand who the heck even heard of Tialift other than us forklift geeks in the business.

Komatsu has always chosen good vendors to support their liftruck manufacturing, NO ONE can argue the quality of Nissan Engines or Hitachi Electrical Controllers, not even Toyota Dealers. Being a Nissan dealer, it alway bugged the heck out of us if Komatsu was in on the deal and they were selling our greatest feature and benifit.

Given the choice between Tialift, a realitive "New Comer" to the industry and Komatsu a Recognizable Brand Name Across Global Markets and Industries, with a solid reputation in Dealer support and a long history of supporting Construction Dealers and Liftruck Dealers, I would keep Tialift for as long as I needed to to support my current customers, at least long enough to convert them over to KOMATSU.

I think that Komatsu is a top notch truck, that unfortunatly has just not done a great job in their marketing, be it because of weaker, smaller dealers having the line, or Larger dealers only having it as a second or even third product line.

I think that you could make alot of $$$ with Komatsu if you push hard, particularly more than with Tialift.