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il-13 goes for a plastic' drive
Page 25
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Mercedes-Benz is joining move to composite leaf rigs for light commercials Fitting 'plastic' leaf springs batch of its 2.6-2.8-tonne panel vans.
le German company is foling in the footsteps of ight Rover (now Leyland vans) which fitted GKN ings to its 200 Series back 985, and Iveco, which has )rporated the springs on the r axle of some 3.5-tonne leis in its new Daily range 4 1-7 June).
i Mercedes spokesman at Frankfurt show told Comrial Motor if the composite ings prove successful in ir first application they will tdopted in the heavier 308 408 vans. The springs are reed from GKN and Geri firm BASF.
'he company has also conied that the more powerful D variant, with its 2.9-litre -cylinder 70kW (94hp) ID] diesel, is still scheduled to arrive here by June 1990.
The move to composite springs by Mercedes is likely to encourage other manufacturers to join the fray (Renault, for instance, has been experimenting with them on lighter versions of the Traffic). It will also make the adoption of composites in the 3.5-7.5 tonne range more likely.
LI The updated Ti range, launched at the beginning of the year, has proved very successful for Mercedes, with January-August sales 15% up on last year (the market itself was up by 11%). Sales in the L8-3.5-tonne segment reached 6,694 units, putting the company in fourth spot behind Ford, Leyland Daf and Renault.
Sales were particularly good in August, up 40% on last year at 1,540 units; this was only seven units behind Leyland Daf, and gave Mercedes a 6.8% share of the market.