VetStar program offers down payment help for new Western Star

Western Star Trucks and Daimler Truck Financial have extended its VetStar Military Appreciation Finance Program has been extended through the end of 2019.

The 2019 VetStar program provides current and veteran military personnel with a down payment match on units financed or leased with Daimler Truck Financial.

The Western Star VetStar Military Appreciation Program was launched in 2016. It offers U.S. military veterans up to a $2,000 match on a down payment on a new Western Star truck financed through Daimler Truck Financial.

Canadian veterans are eligible for a $3,000 Canadian match on a down payment through Daimler Truck Financial.

The VetStar program applies to all new Western Star models. Glider kits are not eligible.

This program expires Dec. 31, 2019. All units must be contracted with Daimler Truck Financial within the program period.

Daimler and Western Star introduced the program in 2016.

According to a news release from Western Star and Daimler Financial, one veteran assisted by this program is Dave Doty. He a Vietnam veteran who used the VetStar program to help him launch his family-owned business, a New York-based contract trucking company called Doty Contracting.

“When we bought our first Western Star, the down payment match took money off the top and our monthly payment went down,” Doty said in the news release. “For a startup, this was substantial.”

Doty owns three Western Star trucks, all of them made possible by the VetStar incentive.

Portland, Ore.-based Western Star is a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Daimler AG. Its lineup of trucks includes heavy-duty highway trucks (5700XE, 4700, 4800 and 4900), vocational trucks and off-road trucks.