MOSSVILLE, Ill. — Caterpillar announced it will offer a special coverage program on all 2007-model Cat engines with ACERT Technology delivered to end-users in the US or Canada during the first half of 2007 for commercial on-highway service.

The new program, called Caterpillar Pure Confidence, includes Extended Service Coverage (ESC) and the Cat On-Time Promise. ESC offers full parts and labor coverage on covered engine and emission components for three years/300,000 miles on all C9, C13 and C15 engines and three years/150,000 miles on all C7 engines.

“Many fleets have told us that they’re concerned about the technology changes that all the engine manufacturers are making in their 2007 engines. Cat has nearly 12 million test miles on our 2007 pre-production engines, and customers who are operating them are telling us that they’re as reliable and fuel efficient as Cat engines have always been,” said George Taylor, director and general manager of Caterpillar On-Highway Engine Business. “We want to share that confidence with users who are undecided on their engine purchases. So we are offering free Extended Service Coverage and our On-Time Promise on every 2007-model Cat engine.”

To receive this coverage, these engines must be purchased and delivered between Jan. 1, 2007 and June 30, 2007. And, if a 2007-model Cat engine requires repairs that will keep it sidelined for more than 24 hours during 2007, Cat will reimburse the user for a rental vehicle to get the load to the destination on time. There are some restrictions and more information is available from a Cat or Cat-authorized truck dealer.

More than 100 pre-production engines are being tested by 56 fleets and are demonstrating reliability and fuel economy virtually identical to 2006-model engines.

The new Pure Confidence program is exactly what customers expect from Caterpillar, according to David Freymiller, president of Freymiller in Oklahoma City, who currently is running a Cat ’07 pre-production engine.

“In the past 12 months, with 160,000 miles on the engine, we have only had one minor repair. In all of the years that we’ve run Caterpillar, Cat has always stood behind their products,” he said.

Caterpillar has sold more than 450,000 on-highway engines with ACERT Technology to more than 46,000 customers since the technology was introduced in 2003.