Drives an Iveco for a living ■■
More Importantly, what’s your take on them ■■
I drive one( It’s now a year old) with an ‘Active Time’ spec cab…
It has enough space In It for what I do, But I personally think that the build quality Is poor. 
Can’t fault the engine as It seems to be bulletproof… 
That’s my finding’s anyway…
Geoffo, ive been driving Iveco s for over 20 years mate,they are the best engines around!but the build quality has always let them down,just the simple things of plastic parts in cab falling off or not matching in colour! but they are good motors from the first I drove a 190-30 till the last one a Eurostar-420 never nothing major in the way of problems.Enjoy my friend.
Don’t drive 1 anymore, but had an 06 one back in 2007 and it was fine.
It was an Activ Space 3 model, loads of room, nice to drive.
Now, the electric mirrors had a mind of their own, sometimes when you start engine, they’d move to 1 extreme and you couldn’t adjust them without turning the engine off. It also drank fuel.
I’ve since drove others, but never as my main motor, and not been as keen on any as I was on that 1…
Horrible trucks. Seats are rock hard, engines are asthmatic, gear changes happen in light years, you have 0 traction in any conditions greater than moist due to the stupid non-lifting axle, you get an unwanted free shower whenever there’s a downpour and the nearside wind deflector jumps out and blocks your nearside mirror view whenever it’s blowing more than a slight breeze. 
Without a doubt the worst truck of the past decade.
Don’t know if you are including rigids…mainly drive 18t box with manual straight 6 box.
Good bits: Engine seems durable. Has a cup holder fitted.
Bad bits: It feels like a 4 cylinder that would be more at home in a metro (or Rover 100 if you are young). Fully loaded have to rev the nuts off it to get through the box. Gear selector rods seem to bend easily making gear selection hard, especially 3rd. Glow plug sequence seems to take forever. Weird electrical problems usually with earthing seem to happen a lot. Exhaust brake is useless apart from shutting down engine.
But it always starts (eventually) and does the job.
Looking at the OP’s photo, if you could take the IVECO sign off and put a light bar there it would look pretty decent. I’d also be tempted to re-arrange the letters STRALIS, you could choose from sistra, sitars, stairs, trails or trials
Just to make it different!
(YAY, that didn’t double post, well done the techies!)
This Is my first experience of driving an Iveco.
I do find the auto 'box a little bit strange (3 button’s on the dash) as It Isn’t that quick or smooth while changing gear , but once It’s In top gear she really goes well… 
…
Mirrors… mmmm, where do I start… Drivers side (It’s a left ■■■■■■) wide angle mirror has a mind of It’s own… (LHD) nearside main mirror shakes/vibrates while on the move (very annoying 
)…
Ive not had the pleasure of the free shower… yet… Truck’s just a year old so all rubber seals are still OK…
I’ve had a few thing’s come loose & sorted them out myself…
Having only driven Volvo’s, Scania’s (3 different V8’s), Merc’s & a couple of Renault’s, this Iveco has been a bit of an eye-opener…
Of course my boss loves them especially when you buy 10 trucks for the price of 6/7 Scania’s…
I like driving the Iveco, but It’s the little details that are annoying…
Geoffo:
I do find the auto 'box a little bit strange (3 button’s on the dash) as It Isn’t that quick or smooth while changing gear
The one I mainly drive isn’t an auto but I tried one once and got some advice in another thread on here. I was told that: they aren’t true auto boxes, just a manual box with hydraulic rams. Think of them as a manual box which chooses gear for you when you press the gas pedal and only when you press the gas pedal. So if approaching roundabout in a high gear, if you just slow down entirely with brakes to a stop then want to go, it has to change from a very high to a very low for you and this takes a while. (remember last time you were on the gas it was in top gear). If however you brake in enough time to touch the gas before you stop it will move to a much lower intermediate gear, and consequently pull away quicker. It’s a strange concept but it definitely seemed better when I tried it this way.
Might be all in the mind though!
Had a 02 MAN one night when I left the yard and arrived back the next morn to a brand new 13 litre 480 16speed zf autobox stralis active space. Was not best pleased as the only other stralis I had driven was a hire when I was on agency and that one was an utter heap.1 month later and the stralis was the best truck in the world in my eyes. The only truck ive had that seemed to fit me like a glove as in steering wheel/pedal/seat combi although comfort and driving position are very individual.What works for one may not work for another. Had a couple of wee elecy probs but disconnecting the batteries via isolator for a couple of minutes always got rid of them.Did 250000 k in that truck before I jumped ship to a better paying job and didnt have one real problem but that was probably because I was the only driver(apart from the yard shunter who used to hook me up for the next day if I was back at base) Dont think she would do well as a fleet/double shifted/different driver truck but one man ,one truck works with the stralis. Im an ex owner operator and had a fh globetrotter and believe me ,I loved that truck but if I was to do it again I would have a nearly new stralis or the new Hi way. MAN was gettin 7-7.5 mpg ,my stralis was gettin between 9 -10 mpg avg on the same jobs. Thats a huge difference in an owners point of view also the maintenence package and general running costs was alot less than MAN/VOLVO/SCANIA. As far as breakdowns are concerned the stralis and an old merc i used to drive are the only two thats never went ■■■■ up on me. Did find a bit of cab roll on the twistys as Ive took her all round the uk inc over to harris and uist, up the whiskytrail and to orkney in both summer and winter and when you look at your map an you see an A road but in reality it is a single track goat trail,but she handled great overall but my company did spec top of the range tyres in both summer and winter.Even now the guys I work with are either volvo/scania guys and the old timer still goes on about old albions etc but theyve never drivin/lived in stralis.Ma auld faither (die hard scania man) still gives me a hard time about the stralis. Dont believe me? Go and try one. My first post and its a bit of a ramble but seriously the newer ivecos are very under rated its just that folk cant see past the problems with the older ivecos. Like I say if I was to go an owner operator again it would defo be a new hi way or a nearly new stralis. PS I drive a 53 plate 380 daf cf now.
Rob K:
Horrible trucks. Seats are rock hard, engines are asthmatic, gear changes happen in light years, you have 0 traction in any conditions greater than moist due to the stupid non-lifting axle, you get an unwanted free shower whenever there’s a downpour and the nearside wind deflector jumps out and blocks your nearside mirror view whenever it’s blowing more than a slight breeze.
+1 I couldn’t have said it any better,they are total crap!
I used to drive one and I can honestly say i felt more knackered after 8 hours in one of them than doing 15 hours in my scania now.
Just plain lashed together pieces of crap.
Ive driven a 26t 61 plate Stralis, I quite liked it actually!!!
Same as the 07 plate Iveco coach I used to drive, loved it!!!
this is mine and I love it,
there are a couple of things that could be better in the build quality, but for a relaxing drive I can’t complain once you know how to drive them correctly, as someone else said they are a one man truck, but for the price we got it for no complaints 
th2013:
Geoffo:
I do find the auto 'box a little bit strange (3 button’s on the dash) as It Isn’t that quick or smooth while changing gearThe one I mainly drive isn’t an auto but I tried one once and got some advice in another thread on here. I was told that: they aren’t true auto boxes, just a manual box with hydraulic rams. Think of them as a manual box which chooses gear for you when you press the gas pedal and only when you press the gas pedal. So if approaching roundabout in a high gear, if you just slow down entirely with brakes to a stop then want to go, it has to change from a very high to a very low for you and this takes a while. (remember last time you were on the gas it was in top gear). If however you brake in enough time to touch the gas before you stop it will move to a much lower intermediate gear, and consequently pull away quicker. It’s a strange concept but it definitely seemed better when I tried it this way.
Might be all in the mind though!
No, this is how you need to drive them. Generally I use the exhaust brake when approaching junction/roundabout and give the brake a quick touch and it will start running down the gears quite quickly then it’ll roll up in 05 if light or 03 if loaded. I do find you need to be careful if the last bit you roll up is a slight incline as it may not take itself down to a low enough gear and struggle or stall. To get a quick getaway from stationery you need to put the parking brake on and get a bit of clutch bite just like a manual otherwise if you go straight from the foot brake to the accelerator there’ll be a massive delay in pulling away. Also if you push the accelerator all the way down there’s a kickdown switch underneath that will drop it a gear basically with that combined with the exhaust brake I hardly ever intervene manually.
It’s not there isn’t anything wrong with Ivecos it’s more there’s nothing right enough with the competition to justify the extra money. Traction in poor conditions and interior build quality are genuine issues most others are either not unique to Iveco or just general crap from drivers that wanna be livin the Scania dream.
my firm had about 8 of them,on 58 plates.
I dont pay the bills and I dont know anything about mechanics…but I do know the last of them are going at the end of the month,and we aint having no more.
Paragraphs for your 2nd post doogs!
The 2 Stralis iv’e driven had a strange intermittent knocking noise eminating from under the drivers seat.
Anyone had a few weeks in a new hi way yet?
I had a piece of the bumper( black lip under main bumper) fall off today while driving on the motorway… I’m not best pleased…
Geoffo:
I had a piece of the bumper( black lip under main bumper) fall off today while driving on the motorway… I’m not best pleased…
It
Vibrates
Everything
Comes
Off.
Geoffo:
I had a piece of the bumper( black lip under main bumper) fall off today while driving on the motorway… I’m not best pleased…
Cheap fix, £20 a side plus vat.
hgvbodyparts.co.uk/iveco-str … h-53-p.asp
Unlikely to have come off on it’s own from vibration it will have caught on a verge or kerb at some point in its life. The previous model the corner pieces used to go too. A problem on most makes really as they all run a bit low to the ground these days.
We had a couple of the older ‘rounded’ cabs on Swifts, they went like a train, and I loved them.
In the 90’s when the more modern square shape cab first came on the market I was in BP truckstop, Rugby with Hop Scotch (Roger) who loved dropping me in the poop for fun. Truck magazine was there with the latest Iveco, high roof cab doing demo drives and asked us to try them out and then comment for the magazine, Roger said yes we could do that, then kindly told them I would go first and he would go second. Off I set up the A5 towards Lutterworth and back, I gave them a verdict on the way it handled, the all round visibilty and comfort, drive etc. I did so then returned to find my cheeky mate Hop Scotch had vanished leaving me to do the interview (the b***ard) 
I did appear in the mag wearing my Federal Express / Matchbox uniform, which impressed the boss of Matchbox Toys and got me a nice little check extra
