IVECO Daily clocks 1.1 million clicks

Akin Sezgin, owner of Kebab Factory, a Sydney-based producer of kebab meat products, already had a good idea of the strength of the IVECO Daily platform. After all, his first Daily, purchased in 2005, covered over 800,000km before its service was cut short by an accident. 

Now, however, his next IVECO Daily, a 2013 50C17 model, has surpassed even that impressive figure, recently clocking an incredible 1.1 million kilometres. 

It’s not like it’s had an easy life either, the vehicle travelling as far afield as northern New South Wales and down to central Victoria, while leaving the Sydney facility with a payload 2700kg before racking up around 3000km per week. 

With a 12 cubic metre internal volume, Akin says the Daily’s 3.0-litre turbo-diesel – which produces 124kW and 400Nm and is mated to a six-speed manual transmission – takes the task in its stride. 

“What I like about the Daily is that unlike a lot of the other vans, it has good power which makes it responsive and easy to drive on the open road,” he said. 

“I’m also impressed with the fuel efficiency that we’re getting – if we were travelling these distances in a cab-over truck with a Pantech body, we’d definitely be using a lot more fuel.  

“Another feature that’s great about the Daily is that it has a proper full-length chassis, which lets us carry the weight we need to get the job done efficiently.”  

Many businesses prefer to update to newer models once a vehicle reaches a certain point in its life, but Akin says he’s had great success through retaining his Daily vans for longer. 

“So long as the van’s still going well, is reliable and doing the job you need it to, I don’t really see the need to update,” he said. 

“The last Daily we had for eight years before it was damaged and it was still going well – this current model is showing no sign of giving trouble.” 

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Akin says it’s mainly down to two aspects: the professionalism of his driver, Ugur, and maintaining factory servicing that utilises genuine IVECO parts. 

“Ugur is an excellent driver,” says Akin. 

“He looks after the van and treats it well – it makes a difference when you have a driver who respects the equipment and knows what they’re doing. 

“And since new, the van’s been serviced exclusively by IVECO Sydney using IVECO parts; I think it’s one of the reasons why the van continues to run so well,” he said. 

“We’ve stuck to the logbook servicing in terms of the work that’s carried out, the only difference is that where the oil change intervals are specified every 40,000 kilometres by the manufacturer, we go a bit earlier at 30,000 kilometres. 

“The guys at the dealership have done a great job at keeping the Daily running nicely.” 

As for when he’ll retire this particular van, Akin is non-committal. 

“This Daily still has a lot of life left in it,” he says.