The I's have it!

Italy. Ireland. Iveco. What’s the connection? One man’s mission to preserve some of the rarest and most powerful trucks of the ‘80s and ‘90s

- Dougie Rankine

I veco were pioneers of the modern truck manufacturer. The company, formed on 1 January 1975, was the first multinational conglomerate to build only commercial vehicles.

Iveco was formed from the Gruppo Veicoli Industrali which consisted of Fiat, Lancia and OM of Italy plus Unic of France and Magirus-Deutz of Germany. These were companies with long, proud histories and unique identities, OM was established in 1849, Magirus-Deutz in 1864.

For the first few years of the merger, the individual brands maintained a degree of autonomy as the Italians, Germans and French all worked out how to cooperate with each other and the new brand was eased into the home markets. Each brand had its own specialisation and customer base; for example OM did light trucks and Magirus-Deutz construction vehicles had a strong image for German quality. Fiat, an industrial giant with almost complete monopoly of its home market was as fundamental a part of Italian society as pasta.

So it wasn’t simply a matter of swapping out badges for a new multi-national super brand. Trucks wore both Iveco and their respective manufacturer’s logos for a while, with Iveco moving to prominence in the centre of the grille in 1982.

While the company had made some well received trucks with the “group of four” cab shared with Volvo and Daf, it was the summer of 1984 that Iveco announced itself as a major player in the heavy truck market.

Star quality