Hey.
Which European brand was the first sold in the UK ■■? Scania Volvo ■■?
And which was the best sold over the years '60 and '70’s ■■, Mercedes Volvo ■■?
It looks interesting for me.
In France every brand sold well from the beginning, but Volvo was on the top with the 88.
Eric,
Although the Volvo F88 undoubtedly had a large impact on sales in the UK in the early '70s, there was still a quietly growing army of European imports during the '60s. The first ‘foreign’ trucks I remember were a pair of yellow Deutz tractive units on C-plates in about 1963 operated by, IIRC, Sandwich Growers.
We are quick to forget that Mercedes trucks had a huge following here in Britain and for many years it appeared to be the most popular Continental marque. I have long held a theory that Mercedes suddenly lost out to Scania, especially on the domestic haulage front, in the late '80s when Mercedes foisted the ghastly EPS gearbox on us whether we wanted it or not; and people just voted with their feet. I don’t think Merc ever recovered from that.
DAFs (T1800s) started to appear with UK plates back in the '60s too. Onward / CRTS springs to mind. The bigger Scanias (140, 141, 142) were quite popular for cross-channel haulage but the Scania 80 on domestic work didn’t help their image, alas!
These are just my observations. There are folk on this forum who can give a much clearer account. 
My memories aren’t precise about which came first but I do recall from the late 60s a number of Magirus Deutz,Mercedes 1418( some with a nose),Volvo F86 and 88 and Scania 80 and 110.I remember MAN but not until the early 70s.
Intresting topic Eric.
Who was the first ? 
Click on pages twice to read.
Whilst some of the most popular manufacturers like Volvo,Scania etc started selling there products here in the mid to late 60s direct
with there own dealer networks starting to be developed,its going to take some research to see who was the first 
Before they all started selling there own products they all had “Concessionaires” selling there products here. For instance Volvo had
one back in 1956.
Magirus Deutz had a Concessionaires from 1965.
Volvo and Scania both started selling direct from there own dealers in 1967.
Jim Mckelvie started Ailsa Trucks in 1967.
I think Mercedes were possibly the first selling from there own dealers and one of there early dealers was Nomand.
Not sure exactly what year they started selling,but Mercedes Benz (Great Britain) at Brentford can be traced back to 1956 possibly earlier.
The above is from my archives but will have a look through some old motor show magazines and see what else i can find when i have time.
As for sales figures. Not sure about the 60s who would have sold the most but probably Mercedes as they were probably selling any great
numbers before any other manufacturer. But from the 1970s onwards Volvo easily were the top sellers at the heavy end of the market eg
tractor unit sales. Overall if you are including 3.5 ton upwards i would think Mercedes would have been the largest seller with there 3.5
ton vans and in my opinion probably the best 7.5 tonner ever built in the 814 model.
tiptop495:
Hey.Which European brand was the first sold in the UK ■■? Scania Volvo ■■?
And which was the best sold over the years '60 and '70’s ■■, Mercedes Volvo ■■?
It looks interesting for me.
In France every brand sold well from the beginning, but Volvo was on the top with the 88.Eric,
Originally I imagine it was Renault and Fiat in the early 1900s!
But in “modern” times? The first truck I saw that I considered somewhat exotic was the Scania-Vabis back in the 60s-early 70s.
probably got to go back to the 20’s and 30’s ,i’m pretty sure mercedes sold lorries in the uk , saurer definitely did and co-operated with armstrong to produce the armstrong-saurer 8 wheeler , said to be the ‘worlds largest lorry’ at the time . pickfords seem to have bought a fair few saurer’s, i think they were swiss. NMP by the way . i know the gist of the question is ‘the relatively modern’ invasion of the europeans , but one tends to forget about the really early imports.
DEANB:
Intresting topic Eric.Who was the first ?
Click on pages twice to read.
Whilst some of the most popular manufacturers like Volvo,Scania etc started selling there products here in the mid to late 60s direct
with there own dealer networks starting to be developed,its going to take some research to see who was the firstBefore they all started selling there own products they all had “Concessionaires” selling there products here. For instance Volvo had
one back in 1956.5
Magirus Deutz had a Concessionaires from 1965.
4
3
2
Volvo and Scania both started selling direct from there own dealers in 1967.
Jim Mckelvie started Ailsa Trucks in 1967.
1
I think Mercedes were possibly the first selling from there own dealers and one of there early dealers was Nomand.
Not sure exactly what year they started selling,but Mercedes Benz (Great Britain) at Brentford can be traced back to 1956 possibly earlier.0
The above is from my archives but will have a look through some old motor show magazines and see what else i can find when i have time.
As for sales figures. Not sure about the 60s who would have sold the most but probably Mercedes as they were probably selling any great
numbers before any other manufacturer. But from the 1970s onwards Volvo easily were the top sellers at the heavy end of the market eg
tractor unit sales. Overall if you are including 3.5 ton upwards i would think Mercedes would have been the largest seller with there 3.5
ton vans and in my opinion probably the best 7.5 tonner ever built in the 814 model.
Nice bit of backed-up research Dean: most informative, thank you!
Tonyj105 beat me to it but Saurer was my thought, the butterfields tanks photo of a 1930s merc shows merc had sales pre ww2, i suspect Hitlers antics dented sales for a while after 1945.
Pics are from Colin Wright tanker & pickfords books.
Steve
tonyj105:
probably got to go back to the 20’s and 30’s ,i’m pretty sure mercedes sold lorries in the uk , saurer definitely did and co-operated with armstrong to produce the armstrong-saurer 8 wheeler , said to be the ‘worlds largest lorry’ at the time . pickfords seem to have bought a fair few saurer’s, i think they were swiss. NMP by the way .“i know the gist of the question is ‘the relatively modern’ invasion of the europeans , but one tends to forget about the really early imports”.
My Dad was in the business in the 20s and often spoke of his vehicles and adventures. But he liked Scammells in the early days, nothing foreign for him…
Just to clarify i was answering the question about the 60s and 70s.
Thats intresting about Pickfords having 100 Saurer’s,never knew that.
