US target for IVECO
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VEHICLE BUILDING consortium IVECO — comprising Fiat, Magirus Deutz, Unic and Lancia, is to attack the American market, next year, with the "Club of Four" range.
Magirus Deutz is also a member of the Club with DAF, Volvo and Saviem.
The announcement of an American sales campaign comes as something of a surprise.
But there is an even bigger one — the vehicles will be marketed as Magirus, not Magirus Deutz.
All the European models use Deutz air-cooled engines and this is the reason behind the name change: the version for the US will use a water-cooled engine from an, as yet, unnamed source.
Fiat badge
Meanwhile, it was hinted, at Frankfurt, that a Club of Four vehicle might appear in the near future with a Fiat badge on the front.
Fiat, of course, is not a member of the Club consortium.
When the Club of Four was set up, the intention was to pool the four marques' various design resources with the objective of keeping down costs during the design, development and initial production stages.
Now, the various models from the member companies are in full production, the remaining Club organisation, as such, exists purely to source parts for production schedules.
Any further development work is the responsibility of the individual factory.
Magirus Deutz is therefore, free to develop its own Club of Four range, which, presumably, means putting in a Fiat engine and putting a Fiat badge on the cab.