THE PRICE IS RIGHT?
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When choosing a truck, maintenance costs are important. Commercial Motor has looked at the 7.5 and 38-tonne markets, comparing parts prices on a range of vehicles.
• Parts prices are like unloved relatives; everybody knows they have to face them at some time, but they are an unwelcome intrusion into everyday life. Perhaps because of this, there is very little information available about parts prices for individual vehicles, let alone comparisons of parts prices for different vehicles at particular model weights.
We plan to change all this by publishing comparative prices for a representative selection of spare parts at each of the primary weight bands.
When we investigated the spares market for one-tonne vans and 17-tonne rigids (CM 14-20 July) we were able to explode a number of myths. For example, parts for the Talbot Express ostensibly a British branded van cost more than equivalent components for foreign competitors like the Volkswagen Transporter and the Nissan Urvan. In the 174onne sector, Scania 93 parts prices were more than double those of the Iveco Ford Cargo 17-tonner.
For this instalment we have focused on the 7.5-tonne and 38-tonne sectors. We have chosen 14 representative spare parts, including an exchange engine, a laminated windscreen, a radiator and a cylinder-head gasket.
7.5-TONNERS
This is an intensely competitive sector of the commercial vehicle market, but do you know which vehide is the cheapest for spares? Are Iveco Ford Cargo spares cheaper than Leyland Daf Roadrunner
parts? Is the Mercedes most expensive for spares, or do these unwelcome laurels go to MAN? Is the Renault Dodge GUS cheap for spares because it is built in Britain or expensive because Renault Truck Industries is French owned?
In many respects the aggregate prices for the parts for each. vehicle conform to our expectations. The Iveco Ford Cargo is the cheapest for spares, primarily because its exchange engine is significantly less expensive than rivals. By contrast, the Cargo's radiator is £63 more expensive than the cheapest in this category.
Though the Leyland Daf Roadrunner 8.15 is placed second in the parts price table, its parts price aggregate is only 260 cheaper than the Renault Dodge G08. The Roadrunner has cheap suspension parts, and the cheapest radiator and water pump of the bunch, but its driver's door is, by 257, the most expensive.
The Renault Dodge G08 fared very well in our comparison. We suspect this is partly because it has been on the market for some time. The replacement engine is actually cheaper than the Roadrunner's, while the headlight cost harks back to a time when servicing costs did not account for an entire set of limbs.
Volvo's FM has developed a reputation in the market for a high initial purchase price, but our investigations suggest that this characteristic does not extend to parts prices. At £4,430.79 its aggregate price of parts is just over 2500 more than the Renault's, and a whopping 21,463 less than the Mercedes. The vehicle's suspension spares are pricier than the competition, but the driver's door is very much cheaper.
At 25,770.61 the MAN's parts price aggregate is almost 21,200 more than the Iveco Ford Cargo's. After our July report on parts prices we received considerable correspondence from Volkswagen about how it had reduced its parts prices subsequent to our investigation. Volkswagen said that it reduced the parts prices on the Transporter and Caravelle to support their secondhand market value. It seems that philosophy does not yet extend to MAN.
The Mercedes 814 takes the wooden spoon in this particular parts price comparison. Clutch parts and water pump are particularly pricey, though the brake shoes are the cheapest in the survey.
38-TONNERS
The results of our comparison of 38-tonne vehicles spares may come as a surprise.
The long-held view that British-built trucks command lower parts prices is borne out, but the range of aggregate parts prices is enormous by almost £5,800. The Continentally-sourced products of Leyland Daf and Iveco Ford singularly fail to reflect their semi-British status in the cost of their spare parts.
Best performer in the comparison is Seddon Atkinson with its T22L29, powered by the Cummins LTA10-290 engine. With a total cost of £6,698.87, the package of 14 items is almost £920 less than the second placed ERF.
The Seddon's exchange engine is by far the cheapest of the bunch and at 213.59 the headlight replacement is also very competitively priced. The total of £6,698.87 is astonishingly exceeded by the replacement engines alone of both the MAN and the Mercedes.
ERF's 6x2 38-tonne tractive unit has performed extremely well in the marketplace, and its popularity is supported by the reasonable parts prices presented here. Though ERF charges £200 more than Seddon Atkinson for a replacement Cummins E320 engine, the vehicle has competitively-priced front springs, halfshaft and brake shoes. ERF would have fared even better in this comparison but the Sandbach-based company was unable to provide us with an exchange price for a radiator, and quoted the £730 new-radiator price.
Biggest surprise of this comparison is the identity of the truck with fourth cheapest parts. Though the Volvo FL10 is a British-built truck, few would guess that its parts prices are significantly cheaper than those of its rivals, Iveco Ford and Leyland Daf.
lveco Ford's 220.30 and Leyland Dais FIG 95.350 come fifth and sixth. Their totals would both be rather higher but neither manufacturer could quote a price for the drive axle spring. The Iveco stands out for its low-cost laminated windscreen and clutch parts, but is let down by an expensive replacement engine and exchange radiator.
The Leyland Dais replacement engine is pricier still, and its radiator and brake shoe prices are among the highest.
In our previous 17-tonne parts price comparison the Scania 93 fared badly, but fares far better in the 38-tonne sector. Its PM113MA 6x2 38-tonne tractive unit commands an aggregate parts price of only £65 more than the Leyland Daf.
At 29,198.17 for its 14 spares, the Renault R310 19TD's parts prices are almost £2,500 more than those of the Seddon Atkinson T22L29.
MAN and Mercedes have the highest prices of our sample. Both vehicles are saddled with particularly expensive exchange engines. At £9,480 for the MAN and £9,423 for the Mercedes-Benz, these replacement engines exceed the complete spares prices of every other vehicles in this comparison. The majority of their other spare parts are also expensive. A Mercedes exchange clutch assembly costs £678, and its drive axle spring is £550.25. Similarly, the MAN's driver's door comes near the top of the comparison cost chart.
CONCLUSIONS
Given the scarcity of reliable information about parts prices we have restricted this comparison to price alone. We have not included any data about comparative reliability of spares or vehicles, because this is purely an exercise in establishing manufacturers' parts prices. It is possible that by shopping around operators may discover cheaper parts for their vehicles, but those taking such a course should ensure that such parts will perform as well as manufacturer-sourced parts, and should be aware of the effect that nonapproved spares may have on manufacturers' guarantees.
0 by Richard Scrase