L-Line (LT7500/9500)

The L-Line was a direct continuation of Ford's HN80 Louisville conventional, whose tooling Freightliner acquired in 1997 and put back into production at St. Thomas, Ontario as Sterling's debut model in 1998. CEO James Hebe forecast the L-Line would make up 80 to 85% of Sterling's initial sales, with the urban-distribution LT7500 (101-inch BBC, short sloping hood) at the light end and the vocational LT9500 handling construction, refuse and tanker work until the brand ended in 2009.