Iveco Massif — April 2008

Date: Monday, April 7, 2008

If you want to turn the five-door, five-seater into a two-seater window van, then undo the wing nuts — yes, we did say wing nuts — that help keep the back seat in place and fold it all the way forwards. By doing so you create an impressively roomy cargo area with a floor and sides protected with chequer-plate.

The bad news so far as the back seat is concerned is that there is no three-point seat belt for the middle passenger and the seat backs aren't high enough to prevent whiplash injury if the driver has to brake suddenly and heavily.

Even with the back seat in place, there's a decent amount of space available for tool boxes, wet weather gear and so on. The single rear door is hinged to the right, with the spare wheel mounted on the outside, and a slightly awkward-to-fold-down-step aids rear access.

On/Off the Road

A run around some rural roads in northern Italy in the HPT five-door quickly showed that Massif offers ample performance. Although it's not designed as an inter-city cruiser, we suspect that it could fulfil that role if it had to without causing the driver too much grief.

It's when you venture off-road Massif really comes into its own though. With huge dollops of torque on tap in all the right places and providing plenty of braking effort where it counts — on steep descents — the engine is ideally configured for arduous mud-plugging.

Engaging four-wheel drive and using the low-ratio gears, we happily steamed up a series of steep, rocky ascents in second and third that we would usually only have attempted in first. For much of what we tackled four-wheel drive plus the high set of gears would probably have been perfectly adequate.

Massif's generous suspension articulation helped. Boulders and deep ruts held few if any terrors for it and the off-road ride was surprisingly good given the uneven, gravel-strewn terrain. The same could be said of the ride offered on ordinary surfaces.

Massif's steering in the rough is a lot better than it is on metalled roads. When you're on conventional highways it has a curiously vague feeling to it, especially in the straight-ahead position.

Nor were we that enamoured of the heavy clutch pedal, although the gearchange turned out to be a lot more precise than we expected it to be.

Switching to four-wheel drive could be problematic on occasions, however. You use a lever close to the gearstick — it's also used to select the low-ratio range of gears — and on our vehicle its gaiter kept catching against the surrounding plastic, obliging the driver to make two or three attempts before it slotted into place.

This defect, along with exposed Phillips screw heads, trim that's of indifferent quality and poorly finished in places, and messy welding around the window frames all suggest that Iveco and Santana still have a lot of work to do in the quality department.

Pick-Up

Having sampled the station wagon, we decided to try the pick-up. It's just as good a performer as its passenger-carrying companion, and even better off-road. Access to the chequer-plate-clad cargo area is by means of a single — and very heavy — tailgate.

It can be locked horizontally if you're carrying over-length items or dropped down flat if you release the substantial support chains. The catches at each end are a bit awkward to undo, however, and we'd prefer to see them replaced by a centre-mounted release handle.

The spare wheel is mounted on the nearside of the hefty frame positioned behind the cab.

Giugiaro is responsible for the styling and while Massif bears some resemblance to Defender, it also looks rather like one of the early Toyota Land Cruisers; not a bad association to have come to think of it given the latter's reputation for rugged reliability.

As if to underline Massif's own solid construction, one of them — not driven by this magazine, we hasten to add — ended up on its side on an off-road track during the press event in Italy. It stayed intact and everybody emerged safe from harm.

Iveco's latest offering has in fact passed what is known as the Swedish elk test — the violent manoeuvres that may have to be made on a road in Sweden if an elk wanders out in front of you — which suggests a good level of stability for a 4x4 with a high centre of gravity.

Minor damage is deflected by scuff-resistant body parts around the wheelarches, lower door panels and rear light units and they can be sprayed the same colour as the rest of the vehicle. They provide useful protection.

Price?

Massif's success will depend heavily on the price-tag it carries, of course. In Italy they'll start at €21,900 excluding VAT — approximately £16,600 in real money. UK prices have yet to be revealed, but it's certain to be competitive with Solihull's offering.

Another deciding factor is how well it will hold its value in the second-hand market. If prospective customers — fleet customers especially — believe that residuals will be poor, then that alone may prompt them to opt for Defender instead.

Then there's the dealer network to consider. Land Rover dealers have a much higher retail profile than Iveco dealers do. While that may not be too much of a problem when it comes to shifting Massif pick-ups and chassis cabs, it's likely to work to Iveco's disadvantage when it tries to sell the station wagons.

VERDICT

While Massif has a few quality issues that need to be addressed, all in all it's a remarkably impressive piece of kit. It's a hugely competent off-roader, doesn't disgrace itself on conventional roads, and is clearly capable of taking on and probably beating Land Rover's Defender in most situations any day of the week. We're not daydreaming. So go and try it out when it comes to the UK at the beginning of 2009. We'll be surprised if you don't agree.