You’ve made your trucks even worse!
Just got my hands on our new toy, a 17 plate Iveco Strallis, and it’s crap. They’ve still not got the pedals, steering wheel and pedals in line. After a four hour drive my back is killing me. But to make things worse, there moved all the cruise controls and exhaust brake onto a lever behind the steering wheel where, along with a whole host of other buttons, they’re hidden.
The UI is hopelessly complicated and controlled solely by the steering wheel buttons, but at least the volume controls are on here too. Don’t get me started on the radio.
But to make matters worse, all 0f the cubby holes bar one are JUST out of reach and drop down away from you. So if you want your chewy, ecig or whatever, you have to lean over and stretch to get them. At least the cup holder on he left is within easy reach, just a shame it’s tilted so all your coffee spills out!!!
I could go on, but I won’t. Whoever designed the insides of this lorry obviously doesn’t drive.
Right, only another four hours in he bloody thing and I’ll be home.
Dont worry…they are like Bic cigarette lighters, when they run out of fuel, you throw them away.
Bit harsh…
If anything they’re being consistent. 
Remember, if you slam the drivers door hard enough, you can get things on the other side of the cab to pop out/fall off/disapear without trace.
I had a 66 reg.
Went like fluck
commonrail:
I had a 1966 reg.
Went like fluck
fixed for you, no charge…
That’s what guest’s used to say…regularly.
(Lease truck)
Don’t bode well for us then as we might be getting a whole fleet of them next year as they apparently do a reasonable all gas edition which is the direction we may be heading.
They have been that bad now for years that if they do ever produce a good truck it won’t get recognised.
I once had a T plate eurotech and it was awful was only 2 year old when I got it but looked awful and a different bit would fall off in my hand every other week,
Iv driven a few stralis and they just feel cheap and poorly put together,
There is a reason why you still see old volvos and scanias working and not ivecos,that’s build quality in my view…
We had a batch of them at Securicor years ago, by two years old they were mostly yard shunters or just dumped. Then a small haulier I worked for bought 2 Eurostars and 2 Eurotechs, they were so unreliable they almost finished him as customers were getting fed up with constant breakdowns.
Nobody buys an Iveco, they lease for 3 years, as they won’t last on a 5 year lease, most dealers offer a bogoof deal, and they say no job is for life, there is for Iveco mechanics (fitters)
plannerman:
We had a batch of them at Securicor years age, by two years old they were mostly yard shunters or just dumped. Then a small haulier I worked for bought 2 Eurostars and 2 Eurotechs, they were so unreliable they almost finished him as customers were getting fed up with constant breakdowns.
I know what you mean,it got to the stage where you dreaded turning the key as it was a gamble weather it would start or not,
I had that motor 6 months and not a week went by without one problem or another
yourhavingalarf:
Remember, if you slam the drivers door hard enough, you can get things on the other side of the cab to pop out/fall off/disapear without trace.
I have had five of the ■■■■ things allocated to me in my lifetime, one Eurostar, two Eurotechs and two Stralis models. All suffered from the same poor design of the doors, and each leaked rain through the tops of the doors, one like Niagra falls in full flow!
I was always told that you should crack the window open as the air pressure when slamming the door shut distorts the door itself and then it leaks. I did that on the last two new Stralis and both still leaked like a sieve!
I had a 560 Stralis and it pulled like a bull in springtime, but the interior trim fell apart over the course of 5 months 
ALL…
Stralis doors leak. Doesn’t matter what you do, they leak. I used to put my hi-viz on the top of the door then shut it. That way I could at least have a hands free phone chat without the other person saying ‘where are you, in a field or a Stralis?’
The dashboard so bright I had to put my A4 folder over the ■■■■ thing so I could see at night. It was like holding a torch in your eyes and then trying to drive. The autobox that after five minutes in traffic would get hot, cranky, start clunking and refusing to change at all. The seat that has no suspension travel whatsoever. The steering wheel that was modelled from a dustbin lid. The horns that fell off the roof or didn’t work when it rained. The lights that went out when ever you switched them on. The tilt the cab system to put oil in! JEEZUS!
10,000 monkeys with crayons could have designed something better I reckon.
I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here…
I’ve recently been driving an Iveco Stralis ('16 plate), what I assumed was fleet spec, although it has bluetooth and adaptive cruise control so not sure if they’re options?
Anyway, my first impression was wow, Iveco’s have come a long way since 10 years ago. I personally find it very comfortable, spacious, stress free to drive, good suspension, and can practically turn the steering wheel with one finger. The audio is decent too.
In comparison, the Mercedes Actros feels cramped, has AWFUL suspension, an awful gearbox and the steering is like trying to turn a tank. The Renault T-Cab ain’t bad, although the steering doesn’t feel very ‘intuitive’ and the audio is terribly quiet. I’m not a fan of the gearbox in DAFs and MANs which seem to rev the engine before actually engaging the clutch, plus DAFs have that silly window within a window which means you have to clean the window AND the mirror which isn’t fun if you’re in a hurry and the sun’s in the wrong position!
Apart from the new Volvo FH, I’d honestly say the new Stralis is one of the best ‘fleet spec’ trucks I’ve driven. I haven’t really been able to pick any fault with it so far. Even the interior doesn’t feel cheap like they used to.
Compared to a few years ago, I’d say the designers have been listening and are starting to make it a trucker’s truck instead of an upsized van.
The last Iveco I drove was in the 80’s and it was a Turbostar (the one with the peculiar louvres on the rear windows) and it was sensational. I drove it for six months and it was a long term demo so probably had been tweaked a bit, but nothing and I mean absolutely nothing on the roads could live with it. The fuel consumption was atrocious but worth it just to see the looks on the faces of the guys in their F16’s and 142 Scannys as I blew them into the weeds.
Curiously nothing fell off it or failed to work even after six months of serious caning. What went wrong? Bean counters getting involved would be my guess.
the maoster:
The last Iveco I drove was in the 80’s and it was a Turbostar (the one with the peculiar louvres on the rear windows) and it was sensational. I drove it for six months and it was a long term demo so probably had been tweaked a bit, but nothing and I mean absolutely nothing on the roads could live with it. The fuel consumption was atrocious but worth it just to see the looks on the faces of the guys in their F16’s and 142 Scannys as I blew them into the weeds.
Curiously nothing fell off it or failed to work even after six months of serious caning. What went wrong? Bean counters getting involved would be my guess.
Its like most Italian vehicles. Engines are amazing, the interior and electrics, not so much.
Haven’t driven the new Strallis, but drove a 2009 one for a week recently, wasn’t overly looking forward to what I was going to get when I was told it was what I was driving, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I feared, especially from my previous Iveco experiences, an old Turboliner and then a Eurotech, both had seen better days.
No problem with the cruise control being on a stalk, it was on a stalk in the old FH I used to drive and it’s on the stalk in my car, I have more of a problem with a Scania cruise control being on the bottom of the steering wheel to be honest, but I soon get used to that after a few miles.
Can’t really comment on the cubby holes as it was the old style dashboard, but didn’t really find it a problem.
I thought the truck was comfortable, quiet, I went through some rain but no water came into the cab and there didn’t seem to be any air leaks through the doors and the windows didn’t fall down when I shut the door.
Ok it’s not a top of the range bit of kit and the fit and finish does lack the refined feel of some of the premium makes. It’s also obvious that they’ve kept trying to update a cab that is probably long past it’s design life, so some of the updated parts do feel like they’ve been shoehorned into the cab instead of designed for it, but despite that I didn’t think it was a bad truck.
Har har har, you wanna see dodgy doors, 'ave a go at an old Atki. 
If I was ever to get sufficiently senile to start running trucks again IVECO would definitely be on the enquiry list at the moment. No EGR counts for a huge amount in my book, and they have one, if not the best dealers in the area. OK some will say they need to be, but I have always believed that the basics are sound with them, it’s trim and electrics where their problems lay.
As someone else has already alluded to, think yourself very lucky not to be driving an mp4 actros.