Probably a good safety feature as many of them will be on the wrong side of the road pretty often .
ambo11,
Dec 20, 3:28am
No I have much first hand experience with many Fiats (unfortunately). maybe the Ducatos were just dogs, but it has turned me off Fiats full stop. the Mercs fare much, much better. Maybe I'm wrong, but we tend to remember the bad things in life. and for me the Ducatos are bad. Gutless, chewing through wheel bearings in under 40,000km, snapping cambelts way too early, door frames bending out in crosswinds, and they wouldn't pull the top off a rice pudding. Would be happy to try a new one though, to see any improvements. I'm afraid no matter how hard you euro lovers try to convince us, a jap car will always be far superior in reliability. Maybe not in looks, but in reliability.
nzfatie,
Dec 20, 4:08am
Over the last 20 years St John has operated Leyland DAF, LDV, Fiat Ducato and Mercedes vans for front line ambulances with Toyota Hiace's used to shuttle patients. If Japanese vehicles are so superior why haven't they been used on the front line? !
franc123,
Dec 20, 4:20am
The lack of body width is the obvious answer to that one, as has been the general layout and chassis options of the Euro vans that simply lend themselves better to ambulance use, barn doors at the rear and airbag suspension are probably the best examples of that. Its got nothing to do with superiority in terms of quality, reliability or running costs, far from it.
ambo11,
Dec 20, 12:12pm
franc123 has it in a nutshell, plus the Hiace etc simply are not tall enough inside.
bumfacingdown,
Dec 20, 12:45pm
It was all to do with your driving "Early model Ducato's being flogged to death by Ambulance steerers from what I recall."
Err, sorry "steering"
ambo11,
Dec 20, 1:22pm
Yep, we flogged them to death by simply driving them to jobs. we HAD to have our foot flat otherwise we could get overtaken by moss growing, they are so gutless. with wiring for injectors etc constantly flogging out and send the van into limp mode ( not a big difference in performance lol). I often wondered if the fact they were only 2.8 litres made them so gutless. but the Sprinters are only 200cc more and worlds apart. :-) We often didn't go priority one to jobs, as they struggled to get to 115km/h. and hitting a bumble bee would knock them back to 50. whereas the Mercs have to be constantly watched as they simply fly past 130. Would be happy to try a new Fiat though, and be proven wrong,as they are a new design apparently. But. I'm a Mercedes guy. Fiat stood for 'F*&$#g inadequate ambulance transport".
bumfacingdown,
Dec 20, 1:46pm
Never had the privileged of the Fiat to drive but the Mercs were damn good, wont go mentioning anything about those Rover powered boxes that were ever so good at sucking juice.
ambo11,
Dec 20, 2:07pm
Yeah. they sounded nice but were underpowered too. but then they had the standard SU carbs running on 91. remember they used to get stinking hot in the cab. and did about 12MPG. The Mercs have always been good, the 5 cylinder Sprinters were quick beasts, still some in service. Years ago when we had these and Fiats, I looked at the receipts of one of our 600,000km old Sprinter,compared to a 320,000km Ducato. the Fiat repair bills were more than twice the price of the Mercs, for half the mileage. it was about then the powers at the top started realising what a mistake the Fiats had been.
attitudedesignz,
Dec 20, 2:41pm
Off topic but, ambo11, thanks for your service, be it part or present.
ambo11,
Dec 20, 2:47pm
Hey thanks for that. :-) And present :-)
kazbanz,
Dec 20, 2:53pm
Hey guys IF T gray is right then Jucy paid $13333 per car. Thats pretty darn amazing pricing for a brand spanking new car. The fantastic news is that with 150 brand new cars there can be no arguments as to the reliability etc -The truth will become very clear within the next 2 years
poppy62,
Dec 20, 3:04pm
I'm also convinced that they ( Jucy) would have done their homework and taken a look at the facts and figures from Italy before proceeding. I presume people (60m plus) hire Fiats in Italy, because I didn't see many Jappas at all when I was there.
It does not matter what the vehicle is, it is more important that the drivers of them stay on the correct side of the road. In a crash situation they will fly to bits equally as well as the present vehicles.
mrfxit,
Dec 20, 3:35pm
True enough but thats not the focus of this thread
mrfxit,
Dec 20, 3:36pm
If any firm can find the truth about a vehicle model, it will be a car hire company.
tgray,
Dec 20, 3:46pm
2 years will be the time they flick them all off and that will be just before all the issues arise. Will be the new owners problem then.
ml6989,
Dec 20, 4:19pm
The OP stated "thats interesting news" . So how does that give me direction on the "focus" of the thread? As with other posters I merely put a point of view forward and you in your wisdom tell me that I am off topic.
gsimpson,
Dec 20, 4:27pm
Only if the recommended servicing is not maintained. New owners need to find someone confident and competent on FIATs or buy ODB2 cable and MES software (cheap) and do it themselves.
gunhand,
Dec 20, 4:37pm
Would agree with you there, having experinced 10 years worth Mercs, Fiats, chevs and daffs. The odd Daff was better than the bloody , not by much mind you. Chevs wheer woobly old gass guzzlers with a nice sounds and very uncomfortable seats. 1999 2001 Merc were slow but comfortable, and had the worse lights on vehicle you could hope for. But still a huge improvement on the others, then they just got better and better. Ours were hardly off the road for unexcpected faults and for milage done and conditions used in etc they proved to be very good indeed.
gunhand,
Dec 20, 4:38pm
What Jap van is he size of a Merc sprinter or chev silverado or daff?
ralphdog1,
Dec 20, 4:49pm
I too have missed the section on "focus" rules, can you offer us uneducated suitable instructions so we do not offend? (Will probably require a new thread as I guess it would not be appropriate to continue outside the focus of this thread. )
nzfatie,
Dec 20, 5:41pm
Looks like they use stretched Previa's in Japan. surely a Merc has to be better than those?
Ambulances in Japan I have seen have been Toyota Hiiace long high wides -Jumbo's and in essence cab n chassis Nissan elgrande's--ie you start with athe elgrande front and fit a ambulance back on them -similar to what we do here
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