Renault Premium
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For me, the much-maligned Renault Premium has to be recognised for its
contribution to driver comfort. A source of much ribbing now, we seem to have forgotten just how fabulous it appeared when it first hit our roads.
At that time, engine humps were still huge and high roofs a luxury, but the Premium changed all that.
Sure, not all interiors were pokey, but your alpha-cabbed Iveco Eurostars and Scania Topliners weren’t aimed at the fleet market, and the MAN F2000 series Roadhaus was still admired as five-star accommodation.
I was in a Eurotech, high but with the inevitable intrusion of a lump between the seats. Scania R-cabs had a nearly flat floor, but you could barely stand up in one. Fleet Volvos were usually FMs, and the cab resembled a tiny rabbit hutch. The first Premiums to arrive on the scene created a turning point in what was considered acceptable to send a driver away in, and for that we must all be thankful.
Lucy Radley (truck driver and freelance journalist)