The long haul into Europe
Page 11
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British Leyland's Marathon trucks announced today are the most significant for many years: these are the vehicles with which Britain's biggest manufacturer intends to fight for a share of the Continental heavy-truck market and to reestablish its position in the domestic top-weight sector.
UK makers have a hard task to maintain, or to regain, their traditional share of the home market in maximum-capacity trucks in the face of sustained, successful and increasing efforts by Continental manufacturers — who have had the benefit of selling trucks for years in higher weight ranges than are permitted in Britain. But that is only one side of the coin: whereas Britain's market in over-28-tonners is only about 6000 vehicles annually, Western Europe as a whole buys 55,000 such heavies a year and this is forecast to increase by 3.6 per cent per annum over the next five years. As trade barriers come down, truck operators stand to benefit from a wider choice of vehicles and from the improvements in the product which strong competition always promotes.
To make a mark in this wider European heavy-truck market demands a highly competitive product and a first-class after-sales service. Leyland is not alone among UK manufacturers in venturing into this field: Ford recently announced its plans for European trucks up to 42 tonnes, and the British independents have made their plans too. But for a variety of reasons, operators as well as manufacturers will be watching the Marathon's progress with particularly close interest. Will it achieve what is hoped for it? Only time will really tell, since reliability and durability are rated increasingly highly by operators as their vehicles venture farther afield; but an early trial of several models left our cautious technical staff sufficiently impressed to suggest that Continental manufacturers now have good reason to start worrying.