BRITISH TRUCKS
(^40) July 2019 Truck & Driver
meeting legislation,
achieving ever more
stringent emissions
levels, innovating and keeping
products up to date – weighed
heavy on all manufacturers, but
those who struggled the most
were those increasingly selling
the least, so least able to afford
them: British manufacturers.
The best weapon against
these higher costs? Integration.
So in the second half of the
1980s, right across the globe,
manufacturers were avidly
looking for partnerships or
takeovers. Leyland talked to
Bedford, General Motors,
Pegaso of Spain, even Scania.
Daf merger
Leyland also came close to being
a founding partner of the Iveco
Group alongside Fiat, OM,
Lancia and Unic, before merging
with Daf in 1987.
In 1986, Iveco underwent a
joint venture with Ford, which
wanted out of truck building in
the UK, finally dropping the Ford
name in 2003. Daf and Seddon
Atkinson were both associated
briefly with International
Harvester. Bedford ceased
trading in 1986 and was buoyed
up for a brief period by David
Brown’s AWD before finally
closing the factory in 1992.
In 1984, Seddon Atkinson
sold to Pegaso’s parent, Enasa,
which then became part of the
Iveco Group in 1991. Dodge and
Karrier were sold to Renault in
1986, which also took over Mack
before becoming part of Volvo in
- At one time, Volvo and
Scania were competing to outbuy
each other! Today, Scania and
MAN are both part of Traton
Group, under Volkswagen.
But integration carries
the threat of confusion
There were high hopes for the ERF ECX in 2000, built in a new factory.
Financial issues relating to the MAN takeover cut the truck’s life short