Iveco Daily 2026 Review

The Iveco brand prides itself on being different. The independent Italian roots of the truck and van maker have seen vehicles developed which are not carbon copies of those of from rival manufacturers.

This is certainly the case with the Iveco Daily. The design incorporates a truck-like ladder chassis, which gives the driver a more rigid and sure-footed feel out on the road.

Back in 2002, when the Daily was re-introduced to the Australian market, it was confronting a potential customer base that had been trained by the Japanese light truck brands to favour cab-chassis models with a pantech body, rather than the large vans more prevalent in Europe.

Over the intervening years, Iveco has plugged away at creating a market niche of its own. Aspects of the design, such as the high cube van, appealed to buyers. 

The cabin layout and design are more car-like and it has a relatively low cargo floor height. It is also ahead of the technology curve, being built for the European market’s higher level of technical sophistication and regulatory specification.

The Daily’s secure chassis has proved attractive to motorhome builders, giving them a stable platform on which to build their accommodation.

You might ask: what is new in the latest iteration of the Iveco Daily? That can largely be summed up as safety systems, plus a couple of small changes. The Daily now offers every bit of safety tech you can possibly imagine.

Outside of the usual fare of adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance, there is an array of radar-based warnings systems, many of which are rare on a light duty commercial vehicle in Australia.

There is a forward-facing radar, but also a radar on the front near side corner keeping an eye on the blind spot down the side of the van. Two additional radars fitted to the rear corners detect objects behind and to either side of the vehicle. This novel system can detect people and vehicles passing behind the van as the Daily reverses out of a narrow entrance.

This functionality was demonstrated to me when someone was guiding me while reversing towards a wall without a reversing camera. When they moved, the brakes were activated as the van approached my helper.

Iveco also brings another innovation to the Daily with its Keyless Entry and Go set up. This enables keyless operation for the driver, who simply keeps the key fob in their pocket.

The automatic function of the key fob enables locking and unlocking doors, as well as an engine Start & Stop function, which places the Iveco Daily well ahead of many non-European competitors in the market.

“An important inclusion in the new Daily for parcel delivery businesses is the keyless entry,” Iveco’s head of product and customer innovation centre, Andrew Winbanks, said.

“It's got a proximity sensor, where the vehicle will turn off and lock if you've got the key component out of the vehicle. It will unlock the door when you come back. The driver can start the engine again just by touching the brakes.”

The upgrade also includes a new dashboard and the now-ubiquitous infotainment screen.

There is also a 10-inch configurable digital display directly in front of the driver, showing everything from speed and fuel level to the status of safety systems such as adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking. The display offers three layouts for the driver to scroll through and choose from.

Another development inside the cabin is the new gear controller for the excellent eight-speed ZF Hi-Matic automatic transmission. This gearbox has been a success since it was introduced a couple of iterations ago. 

The controller is now more complicated with a button on top, and it moves between functions when the driver pushes it forward and back, or side to side. The redesign has made it less intuitive, meaning it takes some time to get used to. However, once familiar with it, the system proves to be very effective.

An ongoing strength for the Daily is the inclusion of an airbag suspension option. This improves ride quality and may appeal to motorhome owners, while also offering practical benefits for commercial buyers, as the suspension can be lowered when stationary to ease loading and unloading.

The Daily’s ‘Crash Box’ is not an old-fashioned non-synchro gearbox, but rather an inbuilt crumple zone engineered into the front engine compartment designed to mitigate damage to the passenger cell in the event of a collision. This design element is the kind of improvement that helps Iveco differentiate its offering from its non-European competitors.

The latest Daily range is a sophisticated and effective addition to the market, but the question is whether it answers the needs of potential customers better than non-European offerings.

The sales figures may not reflect that, but there can be no doubt this update to the Daily range has a lot to offer when it comes to driving experience. Now it is up to Iveco to build that perception of good-value sophistication in the market.

The cabin is comfortable and well designed for workers, while the cargo space in the van is very usable and retains wide openings from both rear and side. The single-tyre rear-wheel models in the range can also accommodate pallets.

Whether the Daily can break out of the useful niche it has carved out over the past 20 years, or remain a runner-up, remains a subject for ongoing debate.

“We've got a really unique proposition in regard to the 7.0-tonne van and also the cab chassis, the only European offering above 5.5-tonne GVM,” said Iveco’s national manager for fleet sales, James Johnson.

“That 7.0-tonne van gives us a real niche and opportunity to go after some of the more bespoke builds that you see in government and other larger organisations.

“A couple of things that we're doing in the background to really enhance fleet is working with our dealer network and our customers to strengthen the fleet programmes that we have.

“We're about to release to our dealers an initial three-tier fleet programme, which will make a massive difference from where we sit, particularly with the fleet management organisations,” he said.

The brand positions itself against a broad competitive set, ranging from European players such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Ford, Fiat and Renault, while also keeping a close eye on Chinese manufacturers, which sit slightly lower on price but are increasingly credible rivals.

“We've really got to keep our eyes on them, particularly the LDV at the moment,” Johnson said.

Test driving the new range at South Australia’s Tailem Bend racetrack provides an opportunity to put the models through their paces. However, the effectiveness of the full suite of safety systems will ultimately prove itself elsewhere – in the tight, high-traffic environments of our cities.

On the strength of this first look, it’s clear the new range will be a boon for busy delivery drivers navigating difficult drop-off locations in CBDs across Australia.

With all available advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) switched on, the driver can concentrate on getting from A to B, safe in the knowledge that potentially dangerous situations in blind spots, along the sides of the vehicle, and around corners when reversing can be avoided.

Forward-facing radar not only activates braking when an object is detected ahead but also monitors oncoming traffic when turning left.

It’s also more relaxing on the road, with Traffic Jam Assist handling the stop-start grind in heavy traffic, leaving the driver to simply keep the Daily pointing in the right direction. The system will also stop and start the vehicle in slow-moving traffic when adaptive cruise control is maintaining a safe following distance.

At the end of the day, there’s no doubt this is a well-rounded and sophisticated commercial vehicle that is pleasant and easy to drive. Iveco has plenty going on here, and the Daily range as a whole delivers a genuinely strong driving experience.

That said, while it’s a sophisticated product, it remains a commercial one at heart.

The model’s past success in sectors such as the motorhome industry stems from end users prioritising long-term comfort, quality and reliability – factors that are not always top of the list for commercial fleet buyers. This is where the Iveco Daily team still has some work to do.

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