New Mitsubishi Canter 7.5t manual curtainsider

We are replacing our old DAF LF and have been looking at a New Canter. This wagon ticks all our boxes in terms of weight and length along with been alot cheaper than the competition. This wagon runs around 30k a year and is used mainly within a 10 mile radius of our head office. My question is has anyone got one of these wagons or has any knowledge of wether they are any good or not? We want some help with this from people who have had them, or run them. Any issues are problems or are they just a good truck for the money?

andrewpayne:
We are replacing our old DAF LF and have been looking at a New Canter. This wagon ticks all our boxes in terms of weight and length along with been alot cheaper than the competition. This wagon runs around 30k a year and is used mainly within a 10 mile radius of our head office. My question is has anyone got one of these wagons or has any knowledge of wether they are any good or not? We want some help with this from people who have had them, or run them. Any issues are problems or are they just a good truck for the money?

We’ve hired in a couple of them from time to time. Not very robust or reliable, and driver’s find the cab uncomfortable and cramped. However, our usage is quite heavy duty for a 7.5T truck - we tend to maximise the weight and run stack the miles up.

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Roymondo:

andrewpayne:
We are replacing our old DAF LF and have been looking at a New Canter. This wagon ticks all our boxes in terms of weight and length along with been alot cheaper than the competition. This wagon runs around 30k a year and is used mainly within a 10 mile radius of our head office. My question is has anyone got one of these wagons or has any knowledge of wether they are any good or not? We want some help with this from people who have had them, or run them. Any issues are problems or are they just a good truck for the money?

We’ve hired in a couple of them from time to time. Not very robust or reliable, and driver’s find the cab uncomfortable and cramped. However, our usage is quite heavy duty for a 7.5T truck - we tend to maximise the weight and run stack the miles up.

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its the reliability that is my main issue, what sort of problems did you have with the reliability side of things?

Clutch, brakes and mysterious engine management faults that no-one ever seemed to reliably fix. Oh, and wheel bearings were prone to wear/noise as the miles were racked up.

General impression was that they’d make a good 3.5T van but maybe not quite man enough for the 7.5T work - but as I said I think we were routinely loading them to their max.

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A Tonka Toy, Cheap and Nasty.

cav551:
A Tonka Toy, Cheap and Nasty.

That’s a bit unfair.
Tonka Toys are quite tough.

No comments on the Canter, sorry.

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Roymondo:
Clutch, brakes and mysterious engine management faults that no-one ever seemed to reliably fix. Oh, and wheel bearings were prone to wear/noise as the miles were racked up.

General impression was that they’d make a good 3.5T van but maybe not quite man enough for the 7.5T work - but as I said I think we were routinely loading them to their max.

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Its light use and local and were buying a brand new one so it ticks all the boxes 3 year warranty and its 10k less than the others.

I thinks its worth 10k saving as appose to the daf lf with just 12 months warranty

Your drivers probably won’t like it (It’s one of the very few lorries/vans on the market where I have to duck my head down every time I get in/out of the cab!), but for light/local stuff I’m sure it will be just fine. Just a small caveat - a £10k saving on purchase price could turn out to be a false economy a few years down the line when it comes to resale value. I’m no businessman, but I’d certainly be crunching the numbers on leasing deals.

andrewpayne:

Roymondo:
Clutch, brakes and mysterious engine management faults that no-one ever seemed to reliably fix. Oh, and wheel bearings were prone to wear/noise as the miles were racked up.

General impression was that they’d make a good 3.5T van but maybe not quite man enough for the 7.5T work - but as I said I think we were routinely loading them to their max.

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Its light use and local and were buying a brand new one so it ticks all the boxes 3 year warranty and its 10k less than the others.

I thinks its worth 10k saving as appose to the daf lf with just 12 months warranty

As long as it was in the standard curtain or box and tail-lift spec most of the big hire fleets buy you could probably narrow that £10k by a lot if you went away from a main dealer.

Roymondo:
Your drivers probably won’t like it (It’s one of the very few lorries/vans on the market where I have to duck my head down every time I get in/out of the cab!), but for light/local stuff I’m sure it will be just fine. Just a small caveat - a £10k saving on purchase price could turn out to be a false economy a few years down the line when it comes to resale value. I’m no businessman, but I’d certainly be crunching the numbers on leasing deals.

I hear what your saying , we have put this in the mix due to how it will do the job for us and we are getting a demo for 10 days so that will iron out any issues our driver has. We buy and keep our trucks for a long time so resale isnt part of the equation too much for us.

Why not a Iveco 7.5t Daily ? , my firm uses one on pallet ways day in day out and it’s ok

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blue estate:
Why not a Iveco 7.5t Daily ? , my firm uses one on pallet ways day in day out and it’s ok

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We have a few of those on our fleet. I think ours are actually 7.2T. They are (ab)used daily and seem pretty robust.

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Roymondo:

blue estate:
Why not a Iveco 7.5t Daily ? , my firm uses one on pallet ways day in day out and it’s ok

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We have a few of those on our fleet. I think ours are actually 7.2T. They are (ab)used daily and seem pretty robust.

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Yep and much better than the eurocargo to drive as it has the fiat auto box and not the crappy ZF box , also has a full back tail lift

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andrewpayne:

Roymondo:

andrewpayne:
We are replacing our old DAF LF and have been looking at a New Canter. This wagon ticks all our boxes in terms of weight and length along with been alot cheaper than the competition. This wagon runs around 30k a year and is used mainly within a 10 mile radius of our head office. My question is has anyone got one of these wagons or has any knowledge of wether they are any good or not? We want some help with this from people who have had them, or run them. Any issues are problems or are they just a good truck for the money?

We’ve hired in a couple of them from time to time. Not very robust or reliable, and driver’s find the cab uncomfortable and cramped. However, our usage is quite heavy duty for a 7.5T truck - we tend to maximise the weight and run stack the miles up.

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its the reliability that is my main issue, what sort of problems did you have with the reliability side of things?

Driver comfort should be your main issue, imo. Where I work they chose Isuzu (similar truck) for cost reasons, they’re quite possibly the worst trucks on the road for comfort, they’re also not very reliable.

ClassOneHD:

andrewpayne:

Roymondo:

andrewpayne:
We are replacing our old DAF LF and have been looking at a New Canter. This wagon ticks all our boxes in terms of weight and length along with been alot cheaper than the competition. This wagon runs around 30k a year and is used mainly within a 10 mile radius of our head office. My question is has anyone got one of these wagons or has any knowledge of wether they are any good or not? We want some help with this from people who have had them, or run them. Any issues are problems or are they just a good truck for the money?

We’ve hired in a couple of them from time to time. Not very robust or reliable, and driver’s find the cab uncomfortable and cramped. However, our usage is quite heavy duty for a 7.5T truck - we tend to maximise the weight and run stack the miles up.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

its the reliability that is my main issue, what sort of problems did you have with the reliability side of things?

Driver comfort should be your main issue, imo. Where I work they chose Isuzu (similar truck) for cost reasons, they’re quite possibly the worst trucks on the road for comfort, they’re also not very reliable.

I can live with the reliaboitly side of it as it has a 3 year warranty and we have other vehicles. I know you only get what you pay for but we dont carry any weight and its all within a 30 mile radius. Not many people like them, i get that it wouldnt be my first choice. I will get the demo for 10 days and see how we get on then decide what to do.

If you want to have a revolving door of drivers come and go with the gaps in between filled by expensive agency drivers of questionable merit and ability (thus wiping out any cost savings on the purchase price) then sure, go ahead. Clearly you’re approaching this acquisition solely from a financial perspective and not from a driver retention and happiness perspective. The Mitsubishi trucks (if you can call them out) are cheap Japanese tat that are universally hated by pretty much every driver that has had the misfortune to drive one. All of the competition at 7.5 tonnes is infinitely superior and I even include Iveco in that who are renowned for their cheap and nasty finishes. Unless you pay your driver(s) well above the local market rate then expect to have difficulty recruiting people to drive it (especially if the work is very manual and generally undesirable as opposed to pallets and FLTs) as most drivers will migrate towards companies operating ‘traditional’ trucks where they have some degree of comfort. A happy driver is usually a productive worker and will likely take care of the truck. An unhappy driver will be unproductive and do things like ‘forgetting’ to top up the oil in the hope of killing it. :bulb:

But why buy new? There are huge amounts of nearly new trucks for sale that are still under warranty and will come within your budget.

Don’t underestimate just how much the Mitsubishi trucks are despised by drivers and certainly don’t rely on the opinion from the Mitsubishi dealer (for obvious reasons).

Rob K:
If you want to have a revolving door of drivers come and go with the gaps in between filled by expensive agency drivers of questionable merit and ability (thus wiping out any cost savings on the purchase price) then sure, go ahead. Clearly you’re approaching this acquisition solely from a financial perspective and not from a driver retention and happiness perspective. The Mitsubishi trucks (if you can call them out) are cheap Japanese tat that are universally hated by pretty much every driver that has had the misfortune to drive one. All of the competition at 7.5 tonnes is infinitely superior and I even include Iveco in that who are renowned for their cheap and nasty finishes. Unless you pay your driver(s) well above the local market rate then expect to have difficulty recruiting people to drive it (especially if the work is very manual and generally undesirable as opposed to pallets and FLTs) as most drivers will migrate towards companies operating ‘traditional’ trucks where they have some degree of comfort. A happy driver is usually a productive worker and will likely take care of the truck. An unhappy driver will be unproductive and do things like ‘forgetting’ to top up the oil in the hope of killing it. :bulb:

But why buy new? There are huge amounts of nearly new trucks for sale that are still under warranty and will come within your budget.

Don’t underestimate just how much the Mitsubishi trucks are despised by drivers and certainly don’t rely on the opinion from the Mitsubishi dealer (for obvious reasons).

Sadly I totally agree with this.

Did one day in one and refused to go back. Apart from that it was the nicest place I’ve worked. Great coffee machine which was free. I was totally treated like an adult. On another job (only driven them twice) the handbrake cable snapped when I pulled up to the gates… They don’t even have air hand brakes.

They are shocking. Feel like bits will fall off going down the road. You bang your head getting in and out of them. And they are just horrifically uncomfortable to drive.

I think people get them because they have a big payload for a 7.5ter rather than them being super cheap. If it’s a cost thing expect to lose out - they literally fall apart.

blue estate:
Why not a Iveco 7.5t Daily ? , my firm uses one on pallet ways day in day out and it’s ok

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Well worth a look, I’ve got an older 6.5t box on the fleet & as it’s lighter than a traditional truck based 7.5t has a similar payload, the newer 7.2t ones far better again.

I quite like it, older so no AC which is a big pain but it’s been ok, day cab roomy enough.

iguana:

blue estate:
Why not a Iveco 7.5t Daily ? , my firm uses one on pallet ways day in day out and it’s ok

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Well worth a look, I’ve got an older 6.5t box on the fleet & as it’s lighter than a traditional truck based 7.5t has a similar payload, the newer 7.2t ones far better again.

I quite like it, older so no AC which is a big pain but it’s been ok, day cab roomy enough.

The Boss must have liked it and the figures as it did replace a 56plt Daily that was on its last legs :wink: plus we have a choice of 2 IVECO dealers in Southampton and the fitter used to work for Hendys

Loads of them here in Portugal,very popular with builders.

David