TEST DRIVE IVECO S-WAY
30 TRUCKING August 2019 http://www.truckingmag.co.uk
Verdict
First things first, the S-WAY is head and
shoulders above the Stralis it replaces. And if
we’re honest, the Stralis was a pretty
competent truck – both underrated and
unfairly criticised. It is also fair to say Iveco
knows its place in the market. You simply will
not get a dyed-in-the-wool operator of
premium Swedish brands to swap for this
truck, even if it does look a bit like a Scania.
But Iveco has to woo the DAF, Renault,
MAN and possibly even Mercedes-Benz
drivers and operators to take the S-WAY, and
the truck can do that – certainly with some of
those brands. The other thing worth
remembering is Iveco makes a well-priced
machine, and its dealers are always good for
giving you a favourable price.
But that leads us onto the other issue
which could affect the truck’s popularity: its
dealers. There are only 17 in the UK, and they
must, simply must, get a grip on supporting
their operators. It’s often said the Iveco
dealers are too preoccupied with vans and
the truck operators suffer. We can’t say if
that’s true, but one operator we know well
has recently replaced its Iveco fleet – which
was actually its biggest marque – and gone
for DAF and Scanias purely because it felt the
dealer could not support the trucks.
Everything else, he loved about the brand.
We still have concerns about certain parts
of the interior not being up to a high enough
build standard. We also think when you look
at the strides Merc has made with upgrading
Actros of late, the S-WAY should have been
competing gadget-for-gadget with that –
but it isn’t.
But we also have to be realistic. Iveco is
still a small player in the UK market and its
core clientele are in its homeland of Italy and
Spain, not to mention an increased popularity
in Eastern Europe. It might never tear up the
UK market, and while there are some
operators who enjoy their Ivecos, get good
service from them and, in some cases, swear
by them, sadly there are not enough of them.
The S-WAY is a mighty fine looking truck.
It’s not as exciting as some competitors, but
as a money-making tool it has a lot to offer.
We will be very keen to take S-WAY over a
longer route with more ability to actually see
what it really can do, because deep down,
we think it will be like the Stralis: underrated,
competent, but now also packing some of
that ‘wow’ factor.Likes
+ Great, striking new look
+ Many cab improvements
+ Proven driveline
+ Many old niggles addressed
+ Gas optionsDislikes- Concerns over build quality
- No mirror-cam option
worse than competitors, so maybe it’s
just us.
On-road manners
The steering is excellent and the
visibility is good. It’s impossible to get
a full feel for the vehicle on such a
short drive – each lap was 3.8 km, so
we only had 7.6 km per truck. And
being on a race track with lots of
bends (hairpins mostly) meant there
was little scope to get the vehicles up
to a decent speed.
There were a couple of short, sharp
hills on the track, both to climb and
descend, and the truck coped with them
OK. But it was just that: OK. It was not a
sparkling performance – there was no
romping up the hill, although we only
had the typical 460/480 power outputs
and we were loaded at 40 tonnes.
We would say both trucks were
borderline sluggish on the steepest hill- though again, in its defence, it was not
easy to get a good run up to the incline
during our test.
There’s a five-stage engine brake
with a noticeable click at every stage,
which some drivers will like and others
might not. Again, the engine brake was
OK – not as good as others we have
tried, but also superior to some
competitors. Middle of the pack in
that respect. ■
The new trucks
handle very wellRight-hand drive models
are due in April