THE CASE OF THE MISSING ROADTEST • I've been an
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avid reader of Commercial Motor for nearly 10 years and a haulier for the past five and have always particularly enjoyed the road tests.
I ordered an Iveco Ford 190.36 TEC-cabbed 38-tonne 4x2 tractive unit on 30 November. It is shortly to be delivered and put on the road. In December, while travelling south on the M6 in my ageing DAF 2300, I saw an Iveco Ford 190.36 Turbostar-cabbed 4x2 tractive unit Northbound on the M6 at Shap pulling the Commercial Motor tri-axle curtain-sided road test trailer.
I have been eagerly awaiting your roadtest report in every issue since. Later in December, I saw the Hino tractive unit pulling your trailer and subsequently the roadtest appeared. In the 18-24 February issue the Iveco Ford 190.36 is featured in your sleeper cab test, so please end my curiosity — when I saw the vehicle was it being road tested or was it just being used
for the sleeper cab test or for some other purpose?
If it was being road tested when can I look forward to reading the report? Did something go wrong? Is that why no roadtest report has been printed?
I've never bought a new vehicle before and was looking forward to your views on virtually the same vehicle which I had ordered.
Colin D Lowe Colin Lowe Transport, Eagkscliffe, Cleveland.
PS: Would you like to road test my 190.36?
CI The 190.36 you saw on the M6 is probably the same vehicle Iveco Ford Truck has been preparing for the past few months for Commercial Motor to road test. It is definitely the same one which took part in the cab comparison feature.
We were due to test it before Christmas but IFT were not satisfied with its fuel economy and since putting that right it has encountered diffculties with the ZF Ecosplit gearchange, as mentioned in our cab test.
A ZF engineer from Ulm, West Germany is investigating the problem.
Rest assured, Mr Lowe, we are as keen to carry out the test as you are to read it and, weather permitting, you should not have too long to wait. Editor