Scania R 480 Euro 5
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We take a ride in the stylishly fitted out Scania R 480 Euro 5 and discover this unit has beauty as well as brains
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Scania R 480 Euro 5
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- Head-turning looks
- Nicely finished and spacious cab
- Meets Euro 5 emission standards, meaning no ‘Add Blue’
- Good fuel economy
- Scania’s Fleet Management System provides valuable driver information
Cable Price has pimped out this new Scania demo with Highline cab, featuring the high spec Svempas Option Package, which means it usually has two to three coats of metallic paint giving it an ultra-high gloss effect.
The factory emblems such as the Scania badge on the grill and the 480 badge are all highly polished chrome rather than matt flat finish.
The checker plate behind the cab covering the gearbox and driveline is custom-built aluminium and the headlights are more than sufficient for night driving, with auxiliary headlamps mounted in the sun visor.
A rear-facing lamp on the roof shines on the air deflector to display the company name at night. The headlights in the bumper are Xenon gas discharge with a wiper blade system to give maximum efficiency at all times. The sideskirts are fitted with LED marker lamps.
The doors open wide, with grab handles mounted both left and right. The interior leather is embossed with the Scania Griffin on the door trim.The steering wheel and dash is finished with red wood.
The driver’s seat has a heating element, and automatic climate control and air conditioning keep the cab comfortable.
One gripe: even for the short time I drove this one, I wasn’t overly impressed with the comfort of the seat base cushion, but this is a minor hiccup that can be overcome by a nice thick seat cover.
The spaciousness of the cab is great, with upper and lower bunks and storage galore. The external storage lockers on both sides of the cab are accessible from the inside as well. There’s also storage in the door, rear wall storage, overhead storage and dashboard storage, complete with a table that pulls out of the dash.
A fridge sits under the bunk, which has quite a large capacity. Overhead you’ll find an electric sunroof and what Scania calls an exclusive interior light.
I spoke with Terry Wellington, who usually drives a 580 Scania for Vowles Transport from Morrinsville, but who was lucky enough to borrow the 480 for a week.
The Scania is the Euro 5, 13-litre six-cylinder 480hp. It produces (2500Nm) 1844 ft lb torque at 1000-1300rpm. It meets the Euro 5 emissions criteria.
Fuel economy appears good. Terry was carting to Christchurch and was up around the 44-tonne mark and says he was returning over two kilometres per litre (kpl). Another company that was doing an Auckland-Turangi swap with the Scania 480 was returning an average of 2.3 kpl. Some nights it actually had 2.6kpl and 2.7kpl but did admit it was running a bit lighter than the normal 44t.
When Cable Price averaged it out over 3000km, the Ruby Red 480 was returning 2.5 kpl.
This Luxury Liner also sports an Opti Cruise Transmission and Scania’s five-stage retarder, making driving a breeze.
The addition of four-point cab suspension and disc braking all around with EBS (electronic braking system) and you have one very smart package.
The FMS (Fleet Management System) feature allows you to download the number of brake applications a driver does, how heavy they are, his/her fuel economy, idle time, revs, over revving and where and what time all these things happened plus a couple of other things.
This information is available to the driver on a digital screen on the dash which he/she can access through a menu selection. So from a fleet management or even a personal point of view this is a brilliant piece of technology.
To sum it up, Terry loved the 480 and that seems to be the sentiment of all the drivers who have been lucky enough to try this Ruby Red Metallic Svempas Scania.
Overall this Scania 480 Euro 5 is hard to go past. My rating is 9/10 and only because I don’t know if we will ever see the perfect truck.
See Scania trucks for sale here.
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