agree gingerfold just sit in a premium for a days graft considering its pretty recent cramped/bad steering wheel no leg room
gingerfold:
Personally I have yet to sit as a passenger, or drive, any German built car or truck that has a comfortable seat. And the worst lorry I have ever driven IMHO, MAN without a shadow of a doubt, uncomfortable, gutless, and very unreliable. Dreadful things.
At this time it was a case of if it wasn’t fitted with Bostrom seats then,with a few exceptions,it was just varying levels of discomfort.While even the later air suspended Isringhausen type offerings were arguably a retrograde step backwards in that regard.On that note the Bostrom seating in the 1970’s special types and the DAF 2800 and even from memory the fixed seating in the Foden S85 ? were some of the most comfortable trucks I drove.As for German car seats absolutely they were some of the worst.Even to the point of comparing the old ‘Essex’ Ford Granada v the later ‘Cologne’ version.You really can’t beat a decent old school Brit car for comfortable car seats.Especially things like 1960’s Austin Westminster,Rover P5,and Jag Mk 10/420G/S type and series 1/2/3 XJ.
While I don’t think that MAN were a big player in the UK market in the 1970’s while they seemed to be good trucks at least during the 1980’s ?. 
stevejones:
agree gingerfold just sit in a premium for a days graft considering its pretty recent cramped/bad steering wheel no leg room
Maybe its the latest trend where 1 manufacturer does something and others follow , Merc are the same cramped and uncomfortable . Its good to hear positives from regular Marathon drivers on here
Carryfast:
gingerfold:
Personally I have yet to sit as a passenger, or drive, any German built car or truck that has a comfortable seat. And the worst lorry I have ever driven IMHO, MAN without a shadow of a doubt, uncomfortable, gutless, and very unreliable. Dreadful things.At this time it was a case of if it wasn’t fitted with Bostrom seats then,with a few exceptions,it was just varying levels of discomfort.While even the later air suspended Isringhausen type offerings were arguably a retrograde step backwards in that regard.On that note the Bostrom seating in the 1970’s special types and the DAF 2800 and even from memory the fixed seating in the Foden S85 ? were some of the most comfortable trucks I drove.As for German car seats absolutely they were some of the worst.Even to the point of comparing the old ‘Essex’ Ford Granada v the later ‘Cologne’ version.You really can’t beat a decent old school Brit car for comfortable car seats.Especially things like 1960’s Austin Westminster,Rover P5,and Jag Mk 10/420G/S type and series 1/2/3 XJ.
While I don’t think that MAN were a big player in the UK market in the 1970’s while they seemed to be good trucks at least during the 1980’s ?.
If you`re going to talk seats the ones in my Volvo S80 take some beating , extremely comfortable with lots of electric adjustments and they even have heating for winter and cooling for summer and just to go really over the top they have a massaging feature too with a few different settings .
bma.finland:
0,don,t know why ,but i like them ,nice to draw ,beautifully ugly ,facineiting
Great artwork bma , that could have been 1 fitted with the L12
Carryfast:
gingerfold:
Personally I have yet to sit as a passenger, or drive, any German built car or truck that has a comfortable seat. And the worst lorry I have ever driven IMHO, MAN without a shadow of a doubt, uncomfortable, gutless, and very unreliable. Dreadful things.At this time it was a case of if it wasn’t fitted with Bostrom seats then,with a few exceptions,it was just varying levels of discomfort.While even the later air suspended Isringhausen type offerings were arguably a retrograde step backwards in that regard.On that note the Bostrom seating in the 1970’s special types and the DAF 2800 and even from memory the fixed seating in the Foden S85 ? were some of the most comfortable trucks I drove.As for German car seats absolutely they were some of the worst.Even to the point of comparing the old ‘Essex’ Ford Granada v the later ‘Cologne’ version.You really can’t beat a decent old school Brit car for comfortable car seats.Especially things like 1960’s Austin Westminster,Rover P5,and Jag Mk 10/420G/S type and series 1/2/3 XJ.
While I don’t think that MAN were a big player in the UK market in the 1970’s while they seemed to be good trucks at least during the 1980’s ?.
When MAN first came into the UK market i heard them described as “the German Gardner engine”, make of that what you will. But it probably stemmed from MAN’s marine engine heritage and the fitting of MAN engines into WW2 U-Boats. A maker of reliable U-Boat engines doesn’t necessarily mean being a maker of reliable lorry engines, and probably for the last 10 years at least MAN engines have gained a reputation for unreliability and short life, coupled with expensive spares. From fairly recent personal experience of operating a few MANs I can vouch that they were extremely troublesome.
Or is the German Gardner to do with the 5 cylinder ?
Punchy Dan:
Or is the German Gardner to do with the 5 cylinder ?
A fair question Dan. Probably the common marine engine heritage of both Gardner and MAN, where engine types were available with optional numbers of cylinders to provide sufficient power for the application. Many Gardner engine types could be specified with 1 to 8 cylinders (except 7). MAN offered similar cylinder options.
gingerfold:
Carryfast:
When MAN first came into the UK market i heard them described as “the German Gardner engine”, make of that what you will. But it probably stemmed from MAN’s marine engine heritage and the fitting of MAN engines into WW2 U-Boats. A maker of reliable U-Boat engines doesn’t necessarily mean being a maker of reliable lorry engines
truck.man.eu/de/en/man-world … 25909.html
As I said in the 1980’s at least they seemed to be very highly regarded around the industry ?.Maybe later on like others they’ve possibly found it difficult to combine reliability with meeting emissions regs ?.
Yes, that was the theory that engine reliability was lost by going down the EGR route rather than using Adblu.
gingerfold:
Yes, that was the theory that engine reliability was lost by going down the EGR route rather than using Adblu.
Scania went down the EGR road for a while and they seemed to be ok whereas our MANs run on both systems and both types have been very unreliable
Im probably going to get seriously flamed here,and admittedly MANs problem with the EGR system on Euro 5 was absolutly dire,Which it was after MAN putting aside 4 million pounds for replacement engines under warranty to compensate customers.But 90% of the problem was down to operators carrying on using them when they had serious water consumption problems,leading to holes in blocks and even fire when escaping pistons cut through fuel lines.The route of the problem stemmed from blocked water radiators on the front,again not many people realising that the cooling system comprises of two water radiators,with the chargecooler now also watercooled and built into the sump underneath.Funnily enough only UK got EGR rest of the world got Adblue.
railstaff:
Im probably going to get seriously flamed here,and admittedly MANs problem with the EGR system on Euro 5 was absolutly dire,Which it was after MAN putting aside 4 million pounds for replacement engines under warranty to compensate customers.But 90% of the problem was down to operators carrying on using them when they had serious water consumption problems,leading to holes in blocks and even fire when escaping pistons cut through fuel lines.The route of the problem stemmed from blocked water radiators on the front,again not many people realising that the cooling system comprises of two water radiators,with the chargecooler now also watercooled and built into the sump underneath.Funnily enough only UK got EGR rest of the world got Adblue.
1 of ours is on adblue and its been nothing but tròuble
Actual engine or the Denox?
ramone:
Scania went down the EGR road for a while and they seemed to be ok whereas our MANs run on both systems and both types have been very unreliable
It’s probably fair to say that the F90 at least was second to none in the day.With Independent Express’ fleet being invincible for one example and our Fraikin example from memory also seeming to live up to the reputation.While obviously no chance of the Fuller option in the Merc which was the deal breaker for me between them.With the MAN Fuller installation being as good as it got with excellent shift quality.
trucksplanet.com/catalog//model.php?id=594
While I’d put the Marathon a long way below nearly there in its day and definitely preferred the Foden S 83/85 even with the plastic cab. 
railstaff:
Actual engine or the Denox?
The whole lot we have 2 8 wheeler tippers 1 8 wheeler hook loader and a 6x4 tractor all have given engine trouble and numerous othr problems but the service is bad too with vehicĺes being at the dealers for far too long waiting fòr parts
ramone:
railstaff:
Actual engine or the Denox?The whole lot we have 2 8 wheeler tippers 1 8 wheeler hook loader and a 6x4 tractor all have given engine trouble and numerous othr problems but the service is bad too with vehicĺes being at the dealers for far too long waiting fòr parts
And when the parts do turn up they are very expensive. I regularly go past the MAN dealership in Trafford Park and they must have close on 100 ex-contract tractor units for sale, but the line-up never changes, they can’t sell them.