Test Drive: Bold New Look for an Old Dog

There will be no mistaking an Anthem when you see one coming down the road. Mack has dumped the conservative Pinnacle set-back axle model in favor of this show-stopper. Photos: Jim Park

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Mack’s new Anthem tractor took me completely by surprise. I wasn’t expecting it to look the way it does. Mack has traditionally been pretty conservative with its styling, but the Anthem puts boots to that notion.

Not since Navistar tapped into the retro vein with its LoneStar back in 2008 has a truck maker put forward such a highly styled and striking truck. Mack says it’s hoping to regain a larger share of the highway market, lost because of its aging Pinnacle model. Comparatively speaking, the Pinnacle is vanilla pudding compared to the Anthem’s New York Italian-style cheesecake.

With many of today’s highway tractors taking on a similar and familiar shape, albeit with styling cues unique to each OEM, Mack’s Anthem stands out from the crowd. With its bright metal accents around the headlights and the grille, the large squared-off fenders and the iconic bulldog hood ornament, it goes unabashedly against the jelly-bean grain. I’m sure when Mack’s designers conducted their driver interviews they must have heard time and time again that customers wanted a truck that looks like a truck. Mack has delivered big-time on that wish.

“We are definitely an American brand. We were born here, we were raised here, and we literally helped build this country,” said John Walsh, vice president of marketing and global brand for Mack Trucks. “We wanted to make sure that the truck we rolled out is unmistakably Mack, unmistakably American. The name Anthem speaks to that American spirit, and I think we have captured that very well.”

Drivers will take to this truck because of its looks, but once they are in …Read the rest of this story

Source:: http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/equipment/article/story/2017/11/test-drive-bold-new-look-for-an-old-dog.aspx