News

For the first time since their widespread acceptance by UK fleets, tractors with automated manual transmis-sions (AMT) have a better residual value (RV) than those with manual boxes. "It has been a long time coming," says Glass's Guide CV editor George Alexander. "For the past 18 months they have been worth slightly more to the right customer, but now it is official.

"We are now at that point where business may be written taking for granted that there is an RV benefit." Alexander believes  that a good quality three-year-old truck with an AMT now commands a £1,500 premium over a manual equivalent on the used market, but stresses that this has to be a decent mating of cab, engine and transmission.

Alexander says that lightweight distribution trucks aren't lagging too far behind tractors, and anticipates that these used trucks will have an RV advantage within 18 months. He says: "The likes of Isuzu, MAN, Mercedes and Daf are making a good case for it, and it won't take too long before their RVs are better than equivalent manual transmissions, assuming no spanners are thrown into the works."

This news coincides with the tenth anniversary of ZF's AS-Tronic, Europe's most popular semi-automated manual transmission. It is currently used by Daf, MAN, Iveco and Renault, and has a 40% share of the Western European two-pedal market. More than 230,000 vehicles worldwide are fitted with the technology.