no no no you've got it all wrong, people who never venture underneath a car will tell you rust is a thing of the past.

Mind you even for VW's cavalier attiitude to quality and standing by their product, rusting sills on a 59 plate car is pretty poor.

This fiasco might just serve to educate at least two generations of consumers, who have blindly bought all sorts of products purely because of the name or badge, for some perceived kudos? from clothes (where you have someone else boldly embossed which is bizarre) to cars, even lorries are bought for image.

Its usually the top range motors from Volvo Scania Mercedes and to a less extent MAN, many companies who operate trunking operations where huge top range sleeper cabs are not required still specify them, in some cases it makes financial sense if the vehicles are on a fast turn around contract hire/lease basis as the higher spec can be easier to shift on used so they get a better deal.

Cynically the canny operator (some big names involved here) has found that they can pay poor money and still get drivers to work all hours God sends if the lorry has enough desireability, the opposite is also true to some extent.

You'd be amazed at the costs of some of the higher spec motors by the time all the bling has been added, max BHP's going up to around 750hp which is a bit silly when all you can do is a max 55 mph.

Where i work its a different scene altogther, basically smart modern nothing under 5 years old but fastidiously clean inside and out being all food carried, we run maximum weights due to product and weight is critical, hence smaller cabs, still sleepers though not needed because there is no resale market for day cabs after the 5 year lease is up so makers reluctant to supply them (fuel tankers the exception), even though day cabs with windows all round are better for getting into some of the places we have to go.

We run lighter smaller cabs generally with small mid lift axles and all running alloy wheels all helps to keep the tare weight down...or more accurately i should say it means we can carry a genuine 28 ton load and still be around a ton under the max 44t, so less chance of a single axle being overloaded as well as the overall top weight being easy to stay within...we load out of overhead silos on our own weighbridges, so pulling halfway off the bridge to double check the trailer has the right weight spread is a 30 second job as we leave, all helps to keep things right.

Just out of interest, with our overhead silos we can load 28 tons of product into the tank in 3 minutes flat, you wouldn't want to be inside..:-)

Edited by gordonbennet on 15/11/2015 at 12:19

Might surprise you to know i now cruise at about 51mph (82k's) when at work, keeps me out of the bunching and tailgating which as you rightly point out has been one of the worse results of speed limiters together with snail racing, also means if i come up behind a slower vehicle, which isn't often, i have a good 5mph to play with to overtake, as a bonus when driven in manual override (the automated manual gearbox isn't up to much left to its own thing) that cruising speed and letting it lug sees better economy and smoother progress than pure auto can provide.

Years go, hmm yes there were some flyers about, i had a Cummins engined lorry that cruised at 70mph @ 1100rpm all day long, hows that for gearing (it was governed to 1800 rpm, i haven't done the maths), after that i had an MAN regd in 86 that would actually cruise at 95, not as the tacho would record that speed if you did it.

Mind MAN's were tough rugged machines in those days and before, virtually unbreakable, unlike today and part of VW just to keep the thread on track.