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Three years ago a new truck was born out of

the ashes of the Iveco EuroStar. Same driveline but a new shell, a new philosophy and a new name: the Stralis. Would a used example suit you?

veco is one of the select band of manufacturers to offer CVs from panel vans right through to 44-tonners, and it's proof that quantity doesn't have to dilute quality because its range includes some of the strongest products in their respective classes — between 7.5 and 18 tonnes, from Cargo to Eurocargo, it has dominated short-haul road transport.

Further mei up the weigh range use EuroTech and EuroStar mounted a twopronged attack on sales throughout the 1990s.They threatened to take the market by storm, but after strong starts both struggled in terms of market perception and had a tendency to age quickly, especially if treated poorly. Residuals plummeted and by 2002,just seven years after their launch, this duo's last breath was more a sigh than a hurrah.

Enter the Stralis: sleek, electronic, clutchless... and heavily anticipated. It coincided nicely with Mercedes-Benz's launch of the Axor and, like its German competitor,its specification and target audience raised an eyebrow or two.

With the Axor,Mercedes went old school with a basic eight-speed manual box as standard combined with bags of torque and a functional, almost Spartan cab that was obviously squarely aimed at neet operators. IL ICH an me Lanky SUM Liu the top-end Actros which became solely a flagship product.

The Stralis was aimed at the same market but took a different route, wit h an automated transmission as standard. Mention clutchless trucks to the uninitiated and they look at you like a dog you've just shown a card trick.

And the upshot? M-B plugged a gap in its range with a universal product; Iveco chose the less trodden path.As usual there were a few teething problems, but on noth ing like the scale experienced by MAN with theTG A. So once again the early signs looked good — but has this Iveco delivered on its promise?

As CM prepared to put a three year old through its paces we were conscious that the Stralis had aged well.to the extent that its "re-launch' was pure cosmetics.The driveline remained the Cursor 10 and 13 . .

umuig Lill OUgll d 1.r Hill WC i cat developments were all upstairs in the office.

Here we got new cabs, new interiors, but until the Executive Space no top-of-therange option to take on the Renault Magnum, Daf XF95, Scania 4-Series Topline,Volvo Fl-1 Globetrotter or Mercedes Actros Megaspace.The Active Space cab was the initial competitor.

This week's test truck,BX02 YXA, is a StralisAS440S43 4x2 tractor registered in June 2002, plated at 38 tonnes and fitted with the Active Space cab. Coming into the test it had done 193,000km, clocked up with Eurohire Vehicle Rentals in West Bromwich.

Iveco has priced the vehicle at £24,978 (exVAT) with six months' warranty. CAP Red Book is a little more pessimistic, pricing the vehicle at £23,750 (ex-VAT) retail —but that's with average mileage of around 420,000km. With its established mileage the CAP price is bang on the money.

Product profile

We probably shouldn't pursue the '38-tonne' issue as it'll get us nowhere. Suffice to say that a simple change in the paperwork will get this vehicle up to speed at 40 tonnes OW.

Our test vehicle is fitted with the sixcylinder,10.3-litre, charge-cooled, directinjection Cursor 10 turbo-diesel developing 424hp with 1,900Nm of torque. It drives through a 12-speed ZF EuroTronic box.

Sitting over the engine is that Active Space (AS) cab which comes with two bunks, a fridge, a fold-out table and a three-way adjustable air-suspended driver's seat.The AS is wider than the AT orAD cabs; it has since been joined by the Executive Space which has all the mod cons you'd expect —but that will have to wait for another road test.

Also on the spec list is a two-stage engine brake, 600-litre aluminium fuel tank on the driver's side, four-bellow air suspension, tinted windows and windscreen, and electrically controlled wing mirrors.

Productivity

Funnily enough it's January and February that provide the best winter conditions for road testing as it's invariably diy, cold and windless. November on the other hand is generally wet and windy. The sun might pop up but the constant winds mean it's only ever temporary.

The fuel consumption figure of 7.88mpg overall stacks up well when you break it down. The A-road section proved hard going, thanks mainly to heading into a constant breeze, but despite these adverse conditions we notched up 7.25mpg.Even without extra wind resistance this section can hamper the overall fuel figure so heading into the teeth of a stiff south-westerly headwind certainly didn't help. On the motorway section, however the Stralis recovered to produce 9.51mpg with the help of a tail wind,so maybe it all evens out.

The motorway section of our test route is pretty short which can make it hard for a contender to improve on a poor first day.The A-road section is double the distance of the motorway and reversing that trend would have returned an overall figure well over 8mpg.

With more than the magic 10hp/tonne on Lap both hill climbs proved easy.The long drag up Dolfor Hill with its windy roads was completed well under our eight-minute benchmark at 7min 26sec. Dinmore Hill was a breeze; the Stralis romped to the Lop in 2min 22sec.The second hill climb demanded a choice between holding back in eighth or struggling in ninth (we chose the former).

Weighing in at 38 tonnes gave BX02 YXA a potential payload of 23,563kg with a seventonne trailer.The tractor with a full tank and 75kg driver weighs in at 7,437kg. On the road Even Iveco's staunchest critic had to be impressed by its decision to offer the clutchless automated driveline as standard. It is the first manufacturer to take this step and in the long run it will prove to be a decision well made.

The driving and handling is effortless — you spend more time concentrating on the actual handling, road awareness and hazard perception issues than clunking up and down the box. Of course you could make work for yourself by choosing the manual override but really there is little point.

Unlike the Scania Opticruise, where you finish driving thinking you haven't explored all the boundaries. the ZFEuroTronic selected by Renault, Daf and MAN is a no-nonsense, straight-forward piece of kit.

Changing up and down the box is simple: one notch forward for a single gear and through the small gate for two gears, with the same process for moving down the box.Tbe blue button on the right switches between manual and auto: the one on the left is for neutral.

Use the engine brake in auto and the system's intelligent enough to select the optimum gear for maximum retardation.And if you run the speed down without changing, say into a roundabout, simply press the blue button and push the stick forward; the box will then select the right gear, in terms of torque, for you to pull away comfortably.

After three years' use the box proved effortless to use, which is why in the long term the Stralis will survive.The 424hp engine is strong and it delivers 1,900Nm of torque but it doesn't possess too much in the way of lowdown grunt. Most changes are made at around 1.100rpm and above, with hill climbs producing changes further up the box.

The economy zone reflects the changes, and you can be more precise in manual, but auto does an efficient enough job.The strength of Iveco's tractor units was always in the engine so the question really was, how well would it marry up with an electronically controlled transmission'? No divorce is imminent.

Judging by its mileage and condition this vehicle still has its best years ahead of it.The driveline is well run in but the nature of its previous work when it was clocking up 193,000km is unknown so there might be a few problems in the closet at worst. Dropping down into valleys around the Welsh section. and down to the M42 at J2 the engine brake did its stuff by easing the load on the service brakes.To get the best from it the revs need to be up round the 2,600rpm mark —the top of the orange section. Cruise control is automatically disengaged by using the engine brake or dropping down through the gears.

Cab comfort

Plastic interiors, depending on the type of plastic used, can age a vehicle prematurely — just look at the EuroStar. In the Stralis the soft grey plastic finish works — but only just Our example was in impressive condition but the bet is not all three-year-old cabs will have been looked after so well, especially those permanently working and not on rental where standards are closely monitored.

The colour scheme has aged well but the seats are a little busy on the eye. What's more the gearstick, wh ich swivels round 180°, allowing the driver to move out of the driver's seat and back into the cab, has loosened. On a couple of occasions it wobbled enough to cover the distance of travel when we attempted to change down a gear, which meant it actually didn't change gear. But if you're heavy handed it can change down two gears instead of one.

This happened twice early in the test but once we were aware of it there was no problern.This glitch was common on early models; it has since been rectified. Otherwise the cab was in very good condition.The foldout table turns the bottom bunk into an 'office' and there's a handy extra power supply behind the driver for laptops or any other appliances being used on the table.

It's a pity that the floor mat covers the button on the floor that moves the steering wheel into the right position. •