Deals on Wheels #464
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Classic DEALS<br />
I<br />
n time, some trucks become classics.<br />
Others d<strong>on</strong>’t, but that doesn’t<br />
necessarily mean they were duds.<br />
No, the real duds are those shockers<br />
that take <strong>on</strong> a heritage all their own.<br />
Remembered, you might say, for all the<br />
wr<strong>on</strong>g reas<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
So now, with the pandemic providing<br />
a little too much time to think about<br />
the past rather than the present, and<br />
enough experience to recount the makes<br />
and models that have maintained a<br />
deservedly dark and critical crevice in this<br />
commentator’s cranium, here are a few<br />
carefully c<strong>on</strong>sidered lesser lights from the<br />
commercial vehicle vault.<br />
I must stress, however, these opini<strong>on</strong>s are<br />
my own and I accept there may be those<br />
with an opposite view of these maligned<br />
machines. But somehow, I doubt it. On the<br />
other hand, there may be those who have<br />
their own tortured memories of trucks they<br />
c<strong>on</strong>sider even worse than those menti<strong>on</strong>ed<br />
here.<br />
Funny thing though, it’s probably much<br />
easier to define a dud truck than a good<br />
truck.<br />
Like, after more than 40 years writing<br />
about trucks and road transport I’m<br />
sometimes asked: “What’s the best truck you<br />
reck<strong>on</strong> you’ve ever driven?”<br />
Quite seriously, there’s no easy answer to<br />
that because so much depends <strong>on</strong> the job<br />
and even the era. For instance, how could you<br />
rate a big banger pulling three or four trailers<br />
through the heat and heavy sand of Western<br />
Australia’s pindan country to the demands of<br />
a slick interstater notching big distances up<br />
and down the east coast or across the transc<strong>on</strong>tinental<br />
paddock?<br />
Or a comparis<strong>on</strong> between a modern<br />
medium-duty truck with its swathe of<br />
safety systems and creature comforts, and a<br />
machine like Isuzu’s remarkable SBR: a very<br />
basic model by today’s standards but <strong>on</strong>e that<br />
did more to put Japanese trucks <strong>on</strong> the map in<br />
this country than any other?<br />
No, ‘the best truck’ questi<strong>on</strong> has no easy<br />
answer at all. A questi<strong>on</strong> with much easier<br />
The JAC, imported<br />
from China in 2012,<br />
came with a cheap<br />
price tag<br />
The Leyland Marath<strong>on</strong><br />
failed to live up to<br />
expectati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
Photo courtesy of<br />
Wikimedia Comm<strong>on</strong>s<br />
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