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The Fuel Efficient Daily

It’s a well worn cliché – that there’s no such thing as a ‘bad’ van these days – but against a backdrop of credit crunches and soaring prices, the question has to be asked: Just how fuel efficient are they all?
We are told that increasingly that is the question being posed when an operator goes in search of a new CV, so Van Ireland’s David Stokes jumped on the bandwagon. Yes, just how economical are today’s van offerings?

At the request of Iveco dealers NI Trucks in Mallusk, we climbed behind the wheel of an Iveco Daily 35S14,2.3 four cylinder turbo diesel 140bhp, with a five speed manual gearbox, to put it to the fuel test.
It was a bold move by NI Trucks who were, when you think about it, putting their ‘money where their mouth is.’ What if, for example, the figures we returned fell short of what they anticipated? Get out of that one!
Interestingly, the sales brochure does not give any fuel consumption figures; if it did, we couldn’t find them. It highlights the Daily’s Strength & Reliability, Power & Traction, Space & Comfort, Safety & the Environment, Design & Image, but nowhere does it focus on its Fuel Economy.
So we referred to the next best thing, the Trip Computer which told us the average miles per gallon was 29mpg, a quite respectable and reasonable figure for a van of its size. But just how accurate are these things? And in what sort of conditions and circumstances could we expect to return such an attractive figure that would do some saloon cars proud?
Van Man, of course, doesn’t like driving around with an empty cargo space; that certainly doesn’t make sound economic sense, so we averaged it out and decided to load it up with around 700kgs of cargo, just over half of its total payload capacity. We zeroed the trip meter, then we filled up the tank; it took 50 litres and cost us £65.94!

Award winning
Not for nothing has Iveco’s latest Daily range been picking up award after award. It was voted Van of the Year 2007 by What Van? and crowned Best Light Truck 2007 in the Van Fleet World Honours.
The Daily is designed for those who spend most of their working hours at the wheel. The range extends to over 2,500 possible configurations with models available between 3.2 and 6.5 tonnes, ensuring there is a suitable vehicle for the needs of every light commercial vehicle operator.
Daily can be specified with a choice of five engines, a selection of different wheelbases and interior heights, lengths, side and rear door configurations and volume capacities – and includes the largest panel van available on the market, offering an unrivalled load carrying capacity of 17.2 m³.
Amongst the most significant features incorporated into the latest Daily range are improved driver ergonomics and ease of movement across the cabin, thanks to the dash-mounted gearshift, together with an enhanced range of vehicle options including a hands-free Bluetooth telephone kit, MP3 player, parking sensors and an auxiliary heater with timer.

Testing Route
In putting it to the test, we travelled more than 140 miles, taking in the M1 and M2 motorways, the busy towns of Lurgan and Portadown, the city streets of Belfast and the country roads of County Antrim, thus covering virtually every type of terrain and daily stop/start environments that a typical van operator would encounter.
The weather wasn’t that great at times, with heavy, blustery showers, and there were road work hold ups, traffic congestion and hill climbs along the way, so we really did set the Daily some challenges – then there was my driving, of course, but we won’t dwell on that!
Our time behind the wheel was pleasurable and relaxed. This is a vehicle that responds promptly to all commands, it has an excellent turning circle, making it easy to manoeuvre no matter what the situation, all the instruments are readily visible, and there’s a good all round view from the comfortable driver’s seat that provides a high level of support, whilst the interior is spacious and practical to manage thanks to the increased amount of available storage space.
Yes, we felt secure on the road and in control, a working environment that cannot be faulted.
A couple of hours later and the moment of truth arrived. It was back to the filling station where we filled up. It took 23 litres – that’s what we had gone through during the course of the day. (I have the receipts to prove it!) Out with the calculator, and guess what – that trip computer figure was surprisingly pretty accurate at 29mpg.

Conclusions
All things considered, 29mpg is good, but we reckon a professional driver could have squeezed a few more mpg’s out of it, especially if the weather had been less windy and the roads less congested. And, of course, the van wouldn’t have had the same cargo weight it had started out with by the end of a typical working day, as ours had.
So, our conclusion is that in these days of belt tightening and rocketing diesel prices, the Daily can stand proud of both its performance and its fuel economy. If you don’t wish to believe it, go test it yourself!
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