TESTERS CHOICE IVECO FORD CARGO 1721
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• As stated, it was a vintage year for four-wheelers. We tested seven, of which five made the shortlist. Considering, the ill-fated brief foray that Steyr made into the UK market, it may seem odd to be including an example in our brief short list. But this is a selection of the trucks we tested last year, and the Steyr 17521 is good enough to demand inclusion — so good, in fact, that it earns top marks for driver appeal, mainly for its superb power.
The systems-check button in the cab earns it a mark for innovation, but the Steyr starts to wilt when we get to fleet engineers appeal.
The AWD TL 17-18 ground round our Welsh route with the speed of a striking slug, albeit with excellent fuel consumption figures. What can you say about the revamped IL cab, except it looks exactly what it is: an ageing TL cab with a few new panels. However, it did earn useful marks for fleet appeal and value for money, and picked up another half a mark for the inlet charge-cooling on the Perkins Phaser engine.
Iveco Ford's Cargo 1718 achieved the same fuel consumption round Wales as the Cargo 1721. (bar 0.04lit/100km). The aerodynamic monster earned good marks for its productivity and fleet appeal, and gained half a mark for the reversing camera in the cab, courtesy of Mitsubishi. The Cargo is expensive as a chassis-cab, but the Windfoil body which gave such a windcheating shape takes the price much higher than anything else — apart from the other Cargo.
No, we didn't give any marks to Leyland Daf for successfully getting the Daf DNT 6.2 litre engine into the trusty Freighter chassis. But it did get a mark for the test truck's Bendix anti-locking system fitted to it. The Freighter, we felt, is a worthy fleet product, even with the new engine, and it represents pretty good value for money when matched against the Cargos. Unforunately it made no friends with its gargantuan turning circle, which left our tester stranded in the middle of Wantage. The other minus point was its fuel consumption, which dragged its productivity down in spite of its useful payload, and briskish speed.
The winner might have been predicted by just looking at the trucks in the short list, but the Cargo 1721 had the best productivity, and with its power and ninespeed gearbox, it won friends for its driver appeal.
Again the Windfoil body derived from the Concept Cargo got a mark for innovation, and the Mitsubishi reversing camera earned half a mark for safety. All was not plain sailing for the higher power Cargo, however, we felt that the too-soft front suspension and poor damping detracted from its driver appeal.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the 1721's triumph is its fuel consumption, which was better than even the Cargo 1718's.
Having three extra gears was undoubtedly a help, but even with those gears and the aerodynamic Windfoil body, 21.66k/100km (13.04mpg) for a 17-tonner round our Welsh route is impressive. More power does not necessarily mean more thirst, and the 1721 has just been out and proved it.