Western Star History

In 1967 White Motor Company started the Western Star division as White Western Star with a new plant at Kelowna, British Columbia, sharing headquarters with White in Cleveland, Ohio. White Western Star trucks in that era typically used cabs from its sister company, Autocar. Western Star production was moved to Ogden, Utah, but the brand was not included in the 1981 sale of White's truck business to Volvo, instead being sold to Bow Valley Resources and Nova Corporation, each owning 50%.

In 1991, Western Star Trucks was purchased by the owners of the Western Star Australian subsidiary, Terry Peabody and Bob Shand.[1] ERF trucks was purchased by Western Star in 1996. It was sold in 2000 to MAN.

In 2000, Western Star was purchased by DaimlerChrysler, becoming part of the Freightliner Trucks division.

In 2002, Western Star production was moved to a plant in Portland, Oregon. 4700, 4800, 4900 and 6900 model trucks are still manufactured in the Portland Truck Plant. In May 2015, the Daimler Trucks North America plant in Cleveland, North Carolina, began to build 4700 and 4900 models, as well as assemble all new semi tractor 5700XE models.

More recently, Western Star MBT 40 trucks operated for bauxite mining in Guinea.