I’ve been reading the ‘Should I buy a 2015 Iveco thread’ and your various comments about different makes of truck, with trim falling off, warning lights illuminating on the dash, the cost of replacement modules etc.
Our cleaner’s husband is an owner driver. Yeah, I know. ‘Oooh, hark at him admitting he has a cleaner’. It’s just that the West Wing was getting a bit too much for my wife to cope with.
Anyway, he’s on his third unit now since going down the OD route. Started with a Renault Premium, then a Scania R something, and now he’s on a DAF XF. All bought second or third hand from dealers. All of them have gone wrong at some point with electrical modules or other stuff going wrong. Each time, he’s either been persuaded to upgrade to another unit at an extra cost of about 30,000 euros over all three, or paid out about 12,000 euros in repairs or tyres to all three.
So the thread got me to thinking about my own truck. When I joined the company in January 2017 as a fresh faced novice, I was allocated an MAN TGX of 2012 vintage which I’ve had ever since, and is just shy of 900,000kms on the clock. Don’t ask me the engine size, I never bothered to find out. It’s a 4 something anyway. Throughout the four and a half years I’ve been driving it, the only time it’s been in the garage is when it’s having its annual service and APK (Dutch version of the MOT), or it has gone to Euromaster for new tyres. The only warning lights that illuminate on the dash are when it’s telling me a headlight or tail light bulb has gone. No trim has fallen off, there are no rattles or squeaks, and after a day of heavy cleaning when I first got it, the cab looks like it did when it first came from the dealership and has aged well (apart from a bloody grease mark left by an agency driver ). The gearbox makes a bit of a clunk in one or two gears when changing down, but basically the unit drives without incident week in week out, year in year out and never has a problem. I’m thinking if the cleaner’s husband had had my truck from the very beginning, he’d have saved himself a load of cash.
So, am I just lucky in not having a lemon? Or are TGX’s just very good trucks overall? I can’t believe my one just goes on and on like the Duracell Bunny without any issues. Do any of you have an older unit from various makes where it continues to drive well each year and has no expensive issues? Or have I just been lucky?
citycat:
I’ve been reading the ‘Should I buy a 2015 Iveco thread’ and your various comments about different makes of truck, with trim falling off, warning lights illuminating on the dash, the cost of replacement modules etc.
Our cleaner’s husband is an owner driver. Yeah, I know. ‘Oooh, hark at him admitting he has a cleaner’. It’s just that the West Wing was getting a bit too much for my wife to cope with.
Anyway, he’s on his third unit now since going down the OD route. Started with a Renault Premium, then a Scania R something, and now he’s on a DAF XF. All bought second or third hand from dealers. All of them have gone wrong at some point with electrical modules or other stuff going wrong. Each time, he’s either been persuaded to upgrade to another unit at an extra cost of about 30,000 euros over all three, or paid out about 12,000 euros in repairs or tyres to all three.
So the thread got me to thinking about my own truck. When I joined the company in January 2017 as a fresh faced novice, I was allocated an MAN TGX of 2012 vintage which I’ve had ever since, and is just shy of 900,000kms on the clock. Don’t ask me the engine size, I never bothered to find out. It’s a 4 something anyway. Throughout the four and a half years I’ve been driving it, the only time it’s been in the garage is when it’s having its annual service and APK (Dutch version of the MOT), or it has gone to Euromaster for new tyres. The only warning lights that illuminate on the dash are when it’s telling me a headlight or tail light bulb has gone. No trim has fallen off, there are no rattles or squeaks, and after a day of heavy cleaning when I first got it, the cab looks like it did when it first came from the dealership and has aged well (apart from a bloody grease mark left by an agency driver ). The gearbox makes a bit of a clunk in one or two gears when changing down, but basically the unit drives without incident week in week out, year in year out and never has a problem. I’m thinking if the cleaner’s husband had had my truck from the very beginning, he’d have saved himself a load of cash.
So, am I just lucky in not having a lemon? Or are TGX’s just very good trucks overall? I can’t believe my one just goes on and on like the Duracell Bunny without any issues. Do any of you have an older unit from various makes where it continues to drive well each year and has no expensive issues? Or have I just been lucky?
I spend most of my very rookie days in a 18t Man rigid. 69 plate with 300+ or so. No error messages in general, at least not fake ones like DAF. I like them the most to be fair apart from
the gigantic steering wheel. It seems to me in my (very limited) experience that they’re the most reliable.
I got stuck on a ramp once because a transmission malfunction but a couple of restarts later it worked, that was about it in 4 months while I’ve been working there
I’ve been driving a 26t 68 reg man.
Apart from holidays when others use it. I’ve been the only driver using it. Since new and never had any issues with it.
Done about 300k. Kms.
Once in a whil the emisons lights come.on.
But drive it in a lower gear up the motorway after half an hour it goes off.
Apart from that never had any issues.
Really.
I can’t fault it really.
I had a Vauxhall for 8 yrs ( was originally mrs,s ) & in those years all we had was 1 coil pack go paid 100% by Vauxhall, my mrs ford is now 5 yrs old & has never missed a beat , my Nissan primera gt le ( chromflair pearlescent paint , green / brown / purple ) , my pride & joy , I went everywhere to get one , snapped the cam chain at 67k
Vauxhall’s / fords if you listen to most are bags of crap , old nissans , especially with a cam chain should go on forever , always we’re talked about as being ultra reliable
It’s normally the Audi / bmw / merc driver who says fords / Vauxhall’s are crap , same with lorries , scania drivers say everything else is a pile of crap when in most circumstances there not , my experience of man,s are the most comfortable out the lot , never broke down in one , but the ones we had at Corby chilled were of dubious build quality, have they moved the parking brake on the new one as that’s the only thing I didn’t like about them
). The gearbox makes a bit of a clunk in one or two gears when changing down, but basically the unit drives without incident week in week out, year in year out and never has a problem. I’m thinking if the cleaner’s husband had had my truck from the very beginning, he’d have saved himself a load of cash.