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THE NEW PETERBILT MODEL 579
Building the Model 579
The new Peterbilt Model 579 blends elements
of both traditional and modern styling with
best-in-class performance features.
Grounded in quality, innovation and reliability, engineers then raised the bar
Their goals were always clear
and actually, quite simple.
They were to base their
efforts on the very charcteristics
that made a Peterbilt what it was —
traits such as quality, innovation and reliability
— and make the new Peterbilt
Model 579 best in class, in every performance
category that mattered.
But if achieving that goal was as simple
as stating it, the new Peterbilt Model
579 would not nearly be the remarkable
truck that it is.
The genesis for the Model 579
occurred more than a decade ago, when
Peterbilt introduced its first innovative
“The market was there for the
new cab. What we had to do
was make it a Peterbilt.”
aerodynamic tractor, an on-highway revolution
that has since evolved into the
Model 587.
The innovative Peterbilt aero continues
to appeal to on-highway drivers
seeking class, performance and spaciousness,
especially those with team
driver operations. The cab is among the
widest on the road, wider than the rest
of the Peterbilt lineup of vocational and
regional haul models.
And while the company continues to
achieve unprecedented Class 8 market
share with its lineup, fleet owners and
drivers alike told Peterbilt that there was
room for an even higher level of customization
— and it was right in the middle
of the existing cab sizes.
“Our product lineup certainly offered
flexibility, but we recognized an opportunity
to provide an even better fit for many
applications,” says Peterbilt General
Manager Bill Kozek. “The market was
there for the new cab.
“What we had to do was make it
a Peterbilt.”
That’s no small challenge. Making it
that much more challenging was the
goal of making the Model 579 best-inclass
in the six product performance criteria
customers told them mattered
most: aerodynamics, weight savings,
driver environment, visibility, sound
quality and ride quality.
“We learned, in talking to
fleet owners, drivers and our
dealers, that what mattered most
to them was performance,” says
Kozek. “Certainly, traditional
Peterbilt styling remained important
to our customers, but performance
is what they talked about
first. The market today is made up of
very sophisticated customers.
“So we directed our engineers and
design team that while the market has
styling expectations from Peterbilt,
any creation of style must be justified
by purpose.”
The following stories demonstrate
some of the specific challenges Peterbilt
engineers faced in achieving best-in-class
standards for the Model 579. The process
started with identifying industry benchmarks,
and then exceeding them. In each
instance, Peterbilt partnered with the
most innovative automotive suppliers on
the planet to create solutions never
before seen in the Class 8 market.
Some were particularly challenging.
For example, the acts of making a cab
both wider and lighter would appear to
be mutually exclusive.
But in the end, the Peterbilt Model
579 can be defined in three simple words:
Best in Class.
“That’s what drove our design
team these last few years,” says
Peterbilt Senior Assistant Chief
Engineer Kevin Baney. “We kept asking
ourselves, ‘Are we on track to
hit this target, to meet our
best- in-class goals?
“If not, how do
we get there?” FC
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