Ok guys I hate to see this heated discussion die so I'll throw in my own rant and stir the ashes to see if fires up again. It seemed a lot of talk of the past, the way it was, how bad it is now, chineese crap, japaneese crap etc etc. For you old timers let me get you back up to date on the modern material handling industry.

for your top sellers (yes top sellers usually do mean vetter service and equipment...marketing alone cannot sell that many units)

Toyota Industries Corp (japanese design, parts and assembly)
* Kion (German design assemble chineese parts)
* Nacco Corp (Assembled in USA...some.. japanese parts..old design..new is japanese designs)
* Jungheinrich (German assemble in entherlands with japanese parts)
* Crown Equipment Corp (USA with US parts...old technology mostly but built like a tank)
* Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklifts America (MITS and CAT are alike) Japanese design assemble in USA with japanese parts by 80% foreign workforce (mexican, african, japanese etc.)
* Cargotec (Finland)
* Komatsu Ltd (Japanese design and parts
* Manitou (French design (oxy moron with collection of japanese and chineese parts)
* Nissan Motor Company (Japanese throughout some assembled at MCFA plant in usa

Ok so what is my point? All of these trucks run the same engines, lp fuel systems, japanese relays, even electric run hitachi, ge, zapi or danfoss (for ac) so how different can they really be? Transmissions and axles are all aftermarket and many made by the same people...nissan engines becomming standard, impco lp systems, ge drive control, zapi ac inverters they are sooo alike it is hard to tell them apart if you strip the paint and labels. How do you think so many dealers now service everything and SMH stocks parts for them all? Come on wake up the global economy is here the chineese, japanese even india are building trucks using engineers from the old US companies because they are doing it faster, better and cheaper and without union plants etc. Clark's korean truck is still getting designed by the guys in Lexington just put together in the leading bus manufacturer in the world's facility (hmmm closer tie than just hats perhaps). Every new design, brand that has come out has had it's issues. Look at mits fb16kt, clark npr, raymond dock stocker they all have had a fluke or issue here or there. Factor in tech's unsure on new technology, dealers resisting a new line and selling trucks into the wrong application and you get a lot of "bad experiences" I've sold a mitsubishis only to have a guy tell me how big a piece of crap the CAT trucks he had were! If you are looking for a new line...for whatever reason... sit back and check it out yourself, see what applications you sell in to and how it fits your customer base and relates to your other product offering and get over what country it came from...until the US shifts gears and recognizes the global economy, that we are no longer the only manufacturing nation and we got to get our butts back to work, and quit trying to milk the companies we work for for every penny and 10 cent increase to the union we all will go the way of GM and Chrysler. Wake up guys embrace it and sell some dang lift trucks!

Nuff said.

By the way I looked at Heli few years ago and it wasn't the right fit for me at the time, now I work for a specialty equipment company so no motive in counterbalance market, we build trucks in USA, Germany, Taiwan, Italy and Spain all with the same design and no difference in the units. In the past I've worked for some of the big ones...MCFA, Raymond, Yale, CASE Equipment, and dealers carrying almost all the brands mentioned.