Steyr opens up its British shop
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• Steyr Trucks, the British arrn of the Austrian SteyrDaimler-Puch combine, is in business — with "no stock, no orders" and no dealers. By the time of the motor show, however, the company hopes to have eight dealers appointed and by the end of the year it should have 30 or 40 trucks in stock — enough to start selling. Initially, as exclusively predicted by Commercial Motor in June this year, it will be offering a range of rigids and tractor units.
In addition, Steyr's managing director — ex-Scania man Cliff Groves — has announced the key appointments in his team. Sales manager is Bill Johnson, until last week sales manager at Boalloy and previously with Foden. Parts manager is John Ruane (ex-Daf) and service manager is Robert Stewart, who has until now been with a Volvo dealership.
The initial range will consist of two 13-tonners, two 17tonners and two 38-tonne tractive units.
The rigids are fitted with Steyr's latest medium-range cab, a modern-looking unit with Mercedes-Benz overtones, which was introduced two years ago and which is also due to be used by ERF for its new lightweight trucks. The tractors are fitted with the much older and very angular large cab, available in low and highsleeper form.
The 13-tonners are powered by 6.6-litre six-cylinder turbocharged engines: the 13S14 has a 100kW (136hp) version developing 490Nm of torque at 1.400rpm: the 13S18 has a 130kW (177hp) variant developing 630Nm of torque. The 17-tonners are fitted either with the 130kW unit (as the 17S18) or with a 154kW (210hp) charge-cooled version offering 790Nm of torque at some 1,300rpm, when they carry the designation 17S21.
All the rigids are fitted with Eaton's 4106 all-synchromesh six-speed gearbox. The 13tormer has Steyr's own axles front and rear, but the 17tonner has been dramatically revised: axle modifications led to its delayed type approval. At the front the 17-tormer has a GKN 7.1-tonne axle, designed to give a greater loading tolerance than the bare-minimum 6.5-tonne Steyr unit. The rear axle is an Eaton 0922.
The tractor units are powered by the Steyr 9.75-litre six-cylinder engine in two states of tune, both of them being turbocharged and chargecooled. The 19S28 has a 290kW (280hp) engine giving 1,160Nm of torque at 1,200rpm, while the top-of-therange 19S31 has a 231kW (310hp) unit developing 1,250Nm at 1,200rpm.
In a major change for the British market, the tractors are fitted with the Eaton TS11612 Twin Splitter gearbox, with the 16-speed ZF 16S150 Ecosplit as an option.
The tractors have 8.0-tonne Steyr front axles and Rockwell U180 rear axles. All the vehicles have parabolic springs front and rear with an air suspension option on rear axles.
All vehicles are fitted with an eight-function "check control", an electronic vehicle-conditionmonitoring system which replaces traditional warning lights with just two lights — a yellow and a red signifying relative severity of fault — and a vehicle diagram on which the location of the fault is highlighted.
To reassure potential customers who might be dissauded by the relative paucity of Steyr dealers in Britain and mainland Europe, the company will be extending its "Euro Service" rescue service to Britain, using one of the established rescue networks.
Prices will not be set until the motor show, but as is usual with such announcements, they are described by Groves as "competitive". Admitting that Steyr is very much "a latecomer" to the British market. Groves says that the company will only survive if it succeeds in implementing a "commitment to total quality".
That is needed, he says, if Steyr is to attract genuine customers instead of "prospects and, perhaps, suspects".
Steyr has had approaches from about 50 potential dealers, from which it hopes to appoint an eventual network of about 20 outlets. The initial target is to get eight of those in place by the end of the year, spread around the country to serve the areas which will be theirs under the final network Groves sees two types of potential customer those whc will spend a great deal of time checking out the product before buying, and those who w. make quick decisions. He fulls expects initial sales to go to the latter group.
He envisages a total market in the three sectors which his vehicles will compete (13, 17 and 38-tonners) as being abou 26,000 units, and he says he will be happy with around 1% of that in the next year.
With Steyr only building some 3,500-4,000 trucks next year, the British market woult be assuming great importance to Steyr in that case. Oby Allan Winn