I imagine Leyland types might feature somewhat, but unreliable sheds are not specifically a Leyland or British thing. You can include rubbish dealer/ manufacturer support if you feel the need.
Bedford TK’s built in the early 80’s. I remember 2 of them (new) that didn’t even manage to get delivered and broke down on the way to our yard.
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All 7 of our Mercedes 450 units. They take it in turns to break down and then spend anything between a week to a month or two off the road. Terrible things and our local dealer as won main dealer of the year a few times in Commercial Motor magazine. Strangely enough our MANs were exactly the same they have all gone now , maybe its a German thing.Will Scania go the same way now ive noticed the quality isnt the same
We had two S reg Bedford KH tractor units delivered new: TUJ 260S and EUX ***S, the former was fine; the other seemed to only manage a couple of days a week out of the workshop without brake problems from day one. It would pull to the o/s on Monday and the nearside on Tuesday then there would be just about every on road performance issue you can think of. The dealer was tearing it hair out over the thing because nothing showed up either visibly or on the brake rollers. In the end it was returned to the leasing company:- Vincent Greenhous in Shrewsury. IIRC the Workshop Manager there was John Chevies. He hit upon the idea of replacing a fibre bush in the handbrake compensator with a specially made brass one . Eureka
Given everything is owned by some global concern these days (MAN and Scania by VW, DAF and Kenworth by PACCAR) quality goes out the window, especially when it comes to shareholder benefits. Decline and fall etc.
Shame really that the accountants cant see what they are doing. Volvo are still independant i think and control their fate. I heard on here from i think newmercman that Volvos built in the USA were nowhere near the quality the Swedish built ones are.
Renault G290 and Volvo F7.Not so much unreliable as total pieces of cheap and nasty junk.
Luckily the Volvo expired in a cloud of steam and molten pistons after being told to get it back at all costs the heap wasn’t worth the cost of the towage or the odds of saving a trailer load of failed deliveries if it made it back.
The former was a much sadder story it took its driver with it to the scrap yard in the sky.
I had a Renault 290GT .I don’t know what the GT stood for but it wasn’t what i tbought it stood for. It wasn’t unreliable but no the best of motors.The R340 and R365s we had we very good
By far, the Scania R-series that I had for a while, it seemed to have a habit of breaking down every month! Based on the experiences with that heap, I’ll friendly decline the offer of driving a Scania any time soon.
And the DAF XF 106 wasn’t the best of the batch, all the DAF’s I’ve driven prior to the 106 were pretty solid.
I’ll answer my own question here (not good form but wot the hell archie) - Isuzu JCR500. This particular shed had already gone through a head gasket or three, two-speed axle repairs that weren’t and one or more clutches. One night some decades on the way back from Lithgow (NSW, Australia) via the goat track known as Bells Line of Road to Kurmond, as I was coming up to the top of Bellbird Hill I pushed the clutch in and there was a bang… and no clutch. I had enough momentum to get over the top, coasted downhill for a bit (right foot on the accelerator to keep the air pressure up) while trying to get the thing into a forward gear. Being as this was about 02:15 and July (winter) and whatnot, I found a gravelly bit to park the benighted blasted thing and walked off to find a phone box. Suffice to say, when the tow truck arrived an hour or more later to pick me up, I wished he’d left the thing on the side of the road.