The above vehicle got a pretty enthusiastic review in Commercial Motor last week.
I’ve never owned an Iveco, and only ever hear very different reports about them. (I actually quite fancy one)
Your thoughts, gentlemen, please.
I drive a stralis (460)rather drive anything other than a stralis , nuff said 
I drove a 09 plate Strallis last year; it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be did seem to drive ok.
They are obviously built down to a price and are trying to cram a modern truck interior into a cab that is dated; I think it comes from the old Eurostar.
I’m sure on fleets, going through many hands, they have loads of bits breaking off, the one I had both side lockers come open while I was driving it, when I tried to close them they wouldn’t, the catches seem to have failed, used a few cable ties to hold them closed for the rest of the journey. The bunk is hard as a hard thing, if I had one I’d replace the mattress.
Maybe try and get a test drive, although you might only get a fleet spec one, and also find out if your local dealer is any good and only keep it while it has a warranty. 
Dont know exactly what exact types of Iveco I’ve driven but hated all of them (never paid that much notice).
One we got currently on hire is an 18 plate and only the agency driver wants it as its got more room apparently (compared to basic DAF CFs).
All felt cheap and nothing wanted to work properly. Gear selector takes some getting used to as its just buttons on the dash which rather feel like they’ll fall off any min.
It not broken down so far however which is a bonus which I can’t say about the DAFs even the 66 plate. 
Last Stralis i drove was the worse application of arsetronic it’s been my displeasure to suffer by a country mile, so i’d be wanting the Traxon (arsetronic replacement) if you wanted an auto.
Most annoying having to tilt the cab to put oil in (which it drank), WTF is all that about 
Other than that, it was a boneshaker and gave numerous false warnings of impending light failure doom on the display, it’s saving grace was once you got a gear it went like hell.
My customer had a 570 demo a while back. Running at an absolute maximum of 25/26t it was heavy on fuel ISTR. Certainly compared to a DAF it has a longer rear overhang and a lower mounted slider. This causes coupling difficulties if you need to reverse down a fairly steep loading dock. With Montracon trailers the angle of the swan neck means that the chassis will foul the rear of the swan unless the slider is moved back. The particular demo had to go back to have the whole shebang moved further back because it was at the limit of its adjustment and it simply wouldn’t couple up. Even so the thing was overlength. The other issue with this is that a 460 Stralis is the same, in fact if you do close it up then it is likely to clean off the first row of side marker lights with the mudwings.
Inside, for me the steering wheel is too high. I am not one of those who has the wheel and seat set for a Formula one car, I like it old-style - reasonably flat- and prefer to sit ‘over’ it. Unless I have the seat uncomfortably far forward then the view from the mirrors on the o/s is angled too far downwards. (I know that sounds illogical). You probably have to wait longer for the gearbox to select a gear to start off than we used to wait for a ■■■■■■■ David Brown set up to die down enough to select the next higher gear. This makes shunting manoeuvres a real chore. Like some other makes the brake pedal needs a really good shove before anything happens. It probably does go well but it is slow off the mark. The old 16 speed manual 380 XE engine DAF would ■■■■ over it up to 15 mph. Lastly the MPH on the speedo is marked in such miniscule figures that unless you know the KM equivalent then you are only guessing or trying to remember.
There is plenty of room inside but everything is plastic.
I agree about the oil, the false warnings and the driver advice.
a lot of the Iveco comes down to spec ,most of all the Stralis I see in the uk are fleet basic one size fits all motors , any Stralis with 1 seat are basic fleet spec the difference is more than 1 seat , 2 seat models have the deeper bed base and thicker seat pads and make quite a difference , as the lower bed of the Stralis is designed to fold to make a table seating arrangement , the top bed is the main bed with wood slated base etc, while no xf daf its quite usable .
the newer gearbox is quite an improvement over the older one ,i find them heavy on Adblue although all euro6 are.
no tilting cab to put oil in now , no hills to be seen anywhere once your in a 480- 570 of them.
not a fleet motor like anything they do better with 1 driver
warning lights if your using different trailers with led lights , again they have a box to solve this as an extra 
they are easy enough run on whole life costs pretty solid motors, engine turbos waterpumps compressor etc all give excellent service , a lot better than volvo engined Renaults, their main competition ,
biggest problem is no idea dealers haven’t a clue when something goes wrong ,
we run them and Renaults among others and lately we have swung towards Renault for the driver acceptance ,
for a operator id go Iveco all day long and we run them into 1 million plus kms the Renault we move after 750,000kms
but everbody has different needs we don’t night out journeys less than 2 hours each way so certainly not long distance .
Thanks all for replies.
Obviously not a universally popular truck at all!
I think Chipliner nails it though when he says it will all be down to how you spec it, and one size fits all is just not going to work.
A lad I know has two 500s on own account work, longish distance but not always fully freighted, plus regular drivers. He’s been very happy with them, as are the drivers, and the trucks are coming to the end of a five year term. I asked him if he would have them again and he said he would as long as the deal was right.
For me, I would just take great delight in blowing V8 Scanias away with the 570, for a fraction of the cost. It’s hard to see where it could go wrong if you had one on a lease with maintenance and warranty.
I had forgottten something else about the slider which is very annoying if you do need to use it because of a variety of pin lengths. The slider manual release handle fouls axle 2 mudguard. In fact you can’t pull the handle unless the unit is uncoupled, which makes life just a little awkward if you don’t want to ram the back of the cab.
yes a lot is down to spec , forget about twinsteer and get a mini midlift does away with a multitude of sins , spec top of the range interior and forget about the table and chairs arrangement , the drivers soon do after the novelty has worn off , get the extra storage fridge or box beneath the bed .
we have ones at 400,000km and the inside looks as if someone took a hammer to it , same trucks with 1mill kms on them and are as good as new not even a ripped seat base which are interchangeable with passenger side .
scanias can only dream of seats that last like them .
to be honest id rather have them from an operators point of view , although as I say Renault t is now the favoured choice of drivers and there are some fantastic deals on t range at the minute , local Renault dealers much better than Iveco who couldn’t even spec the truck right after spending 2 hours trying to sell it.
I don’t think Iveco will match them unless there going to be a big push before the new cab arrives .
if your leasing then its a diffrent story as the 2 are very close on terms.
It would need to be a tag axle for my work. Not common on an Iveco, but I have seen a few.
I wonder if the fifth wheel issues, slider etc, are caused by them being specced for European 4m hight limits? Probably a 50mm subframe would fix the problem, and still the face of the plate would not be anymore than 1250mm off the ground. Also.with air suspension, why do you need run up ramps anymore?
There are a couple of quite good dealers here in the frozen north, but I think even they might struggle to get the spec correct. I certainly wouldn’t consider buying one at my age, as you could take a bad hit on a Stralis at three years old, but would be fine with a lease. We’ll see, prob never happen.
I do quite like the Renault too, and they have been doing well with sales up this way as they have an ideal spec available almost ex stock. Tag axles (popular here) good transmission and the 13 litre 520 goes very well indeed.
Having said that, I made a firm enquiry to price one up a couple of years ago and I’m still waiting for a response from what seemed to be a very enthusiastic salesman.
Old John:
Also.with air suspension, why do you need run up ramps anymore?
Because some people drop trailers too low still and some air suspensions wont drop properly.
We seem to have this problem with the Iveco at work esp if its a double decker loaded trailer (lots of flex) - it struggles to get under the front sometimes.
The Merc Axor had the same issue however but DAFs are fine.
We have a lot of new 510`s and 99% of them are going back for warranty work. Personally I find them an ok truck to drive and yeah bit do fall of at a regular interval. I am currently driving a 3yr old 500 euro 6 and it flies up hills even at 42t plus.
Old John:
Thanks all for replies.
Obviously not a universally popular truck at all!
I think Chipliner nails it though when he says it will all be down to how you spec it, and one size fits all is just not going to work.
A lad I know has two 500s on own account work, longish distance but not always fully freighted, plus regular drivers. He’s been very happy with them, as are the drivers, and the trucks are coming to the end of a five year term. I asked him if he would have them again and he said he would as long as the deal was right.
For me, I would just take great delight in blowing V8 Scanias away with the 570, for a fraction of the cost. It’s hard to see where it could go wrong if you had one on a lease with maintenance and warranty.
Good luck with that.
Ivecos must be the worst trucks on the road, hideous, gutless, terrible gearboxes and an interior that must have been designed to be as vile as possible.
If you want cheap and nasty, get a Renault, good going motors, poverty interiors. Decent on fuel too.
My 500 ain`t gutless, ask many a Scania steerer.
Iveco may have faults, but I am pretty sure being gutless is not one of them…
Dave.
I’ve had an R480 Scania for the last two and a half years. I think it goes very poorly and is bad on fuel.
In that time, I have never ever had an Iveco keep me back on a climb. Some of them pass so quickly that I never need to flash them in.
Ivecos have always been good pullers, but the only Scania V8 you’ll be leaving behind is one with a burst intercooler.
Been years since I drove a V8, but if things are as they used to be, there are them and everything else. My 143, and later my 164 blew everything else away.
I wouldn’t put much store in magazine tests either, look back at some of the “Truck of the Year” winners…
Iveco/ Fiat were always blessed with good engines. Maybe not always power houses but reliable. One i had years back was the Fiat (later used in the rebranded Iveco name) 17litre twin turbo air cooled V8. It used two small turbos which splooled up quick giving little lag. That engine was great and sounded 
at full tilt…just everything else around it fell off or broke…
we had a quote for a stralis, merc and a volvo and the iveco was the most expensive. we have a 16 plate 560, a couple of mercs and a 16 plate volvo and out of the lot the iveco is my favourite, lovely light steering, quiet and pokey. i would be the first to admit that the gearbox is not up there with the i-shift but what is! and the delay is greatly improved when compared to the earlier stralis and is not too bad at all now.