Iveco Daily 4x4 goes on sale

Iveco Australia is in the final stages of Australian certification of the off-road Daily, which is already on sale in Europe. The Daily is Iveco's heavy hauling van, which is also available in a single cab-chassis and crew cab-chassis format.

A high-riding 4x4 version has been on sale in Europe for years and Iveco Australia will start taking orders for it here next month. Iveco Australia presented two evaluation 4x4 Dailys at Melbourne's recent International Truck and Trailer Show.

These models are rated to tow 3500kg and have a total weight limit (the combined weight of the vehicle, load and trailer) of 5500kg although the specification of the Australian vehicle has not been finalized.

Iveco Australia application engineer, Christian Andel, says there is one reason the company decided to introduce the vehicle locally. "Customer demand," he says.

"I have been hearing about it for the last three years. They have been seeing it for years in Europe and they wanted it." Iveco Australia decided not to take the 4x4 Daily straight away because it wanted to make sure it was tough enough.

"We wanted to see some real world testing and they put it in Dakar, they have put them to work in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and they hammer them more than we do," Andel says. "If they can do that, they can do anything in Australia."

The 4x4 Daily runs a full-time 4x4 system and comes standard with a centre and rear locking differential, while a front locking differential is optional. It runs a six-speed manual gearbox and has low-range function for crawling that means the driver can choose between 24 forward gear ratios and a four reverse gear ratios.

The drive comes from a twin-turbo 3.0-litre four-cylinder Iveco turbo diesel that generates 127kW and 400Nm and runs a diesel particulate filter.