Iveco Daily Review & Prices

The Iveco Daily is the heaviest-duty panel van on the market today. You see, while most panel vans are the largest products their manufacturers produce, the Daily is actually Iveco’s smallest vehicle - it usually builds big lorries and articulated trucks.

It’s like a commercial kitchen equipment manufacturer building mixers for home use - some things can be scaled down, but you’re still going to get a few features that seem like overkill in the kitchen of a two-bed semi. Yet those same features might be indispensable if your needs call for them.

To that end, Iveco builds the Daily on a separate chassis, unlike other large vans such as the Ford Transit and Mercedes Sprinter which have monocoque construction. It offers weights that start at 3.5 tonnes - the largest you can drive on a regular car licence - and go all the way up to 7.2 tonnes, usually the preserve of small lorries.

You can get it as a chassis cab, tipper, dropside or panel van, and Iveco’s partnership with various bodybuilders means that no matter your needs, you should be able to get a Daily that covers them.

All that bulk needs some beefy engines to pull it along, and the Daily has an unusually wide engine range even by van standards. There’s a choice of 2.3 or 3.0-litre engines, with power outputs from 116hp right up to 210hp. You can have manual or automatic gearboxes, a fully-electric Iveco eDaily, or even the very niche but interesting Daily Natural Power which runs on compressed natural gas (CNG).

For 2024, Iveco’s really upped the Daily’s safety kit. It’s part of a wider European push on mandatory equipment, which isn’t the law yet in the UK - but the Daily’s still compliant. That means you get lane-keeping aids, parking sensors, speed limit assist, blind-spot monitoring, driver and passenger airbags and an autonomous emergency braking system - all as standard. Even some brand-new vans still leave these as options boxes to be ticked.

But between the Daily’s heavy-duty chassis and all that standard equipment, it’s a heavy van - and that means that the smaller, 3.5t variants are limited on the weight they can carry. Payloads are a good couple of hundred kilos less than you’d get on the equivalent Sprinter, Transit or Renault Master, and the Daily’s rear-wheel drive chassis means the loading floor is quite high too.

To drive, it feels more agricultural than those lighter-duty alternatives, but there are several great features that set it apart from the crowd - super-comfortable seats and one of the best automatic gearboxes available on a van. Good visibility and a great turning circle also mean it’s much more manoeuvrable in town than you might think, too.

The payoff is just that it’s noisier, jostles more over bumps in the road and is less refined in general than the best large panel vans. Fuel economy, too, tends to be higher than those alternatives.

Iveco’s aftercare service and fleet monitoring systems, however - set up for fleets of big trucks that need to minimise their downtime - may be worth the purchase on their own. Access comes free with every Daily and means you can easily keep track of several vehicles with ease.

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The Daily range starts at just under £42,000 ex-VAT for the panel van. That’s only a little more than a Ford Transit, and less than a Mercedes Sprinter, though the price can mount quickly if you want a more powerful engine or plusher cab.

For our money, it’s well worth specifying the Hi-Matic automatic gearbox - three quarters of Iveco’s Daily customers do - as well as the more sophisticated infotainment system which should make life on the road easier for the driver. A reversing camera is also well worth having, especially in the Daily’s longer configurations.

Diesel engines are powerful and the automatic gearbox is excellent - but they can be a bit rough and noisy

The Iveco Daily is available with either 2.3-litre or 3.0-litre engines. The 2.3-litre is available with 116, 136 or 156hp, while the 3.0-litre gets 160, 180 or 210hp - the latter among the most powerful engines available in a van.

When it comes to the 3.5t panel van, the mid-range 136hp diesel is a great match, being powerful enough for most situations without going overboard. However, more power is welcome if you have one of the larger vans, and you’ll really want the powerful 3.0-litre unit if you’ve gone right up to the 7.2t Daily.

All the diesel engines feel a bit more agricultural than the ones you get in a Sprinter or a Transit - they're noisier and rougher, though not excessively so.

There’s also the Daily Natural Power, which gets a 136hp version of the 3.0-litre engine that runs on compressed natural gas. It’s really smooth and nice to drive, but has a limited range and very few places it can be refuelled - so it’s a niche option.

Models up to 180hp get a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, which is actually quite nice to use with a precise action and not too much slop in between gears. But the majority of Iveco’s customers opt for the eight-speed Hi-Matic automatic gearbox. This is as good as the Mercedes Sprinter’s gearbox, making it one of the best automatics available on a van. It’s quick-shifting, smooth and a great match for the Daily.

The ease of driving the Daily in town depends very much on how big your version is, but there are some commonalities between all of them. First, the rear-wheel drive chassis endows the Daily with a very impressive turning circle for its size. The steering is very light, and there’s even a ‘city’ button to make it lighter still - useful if you’re performing a multi-point turn or parking in a tight spot.

The suspension is quite bouncy when the van is lightly laden, though, and that only improves a bit with a load on board. It settles down a little when you’re doing higher speeds on the motorway, but the Daily is never quite as comfortable as a Mercedes Sprinter or a Ford Transit - even on the optional rear air suspension.

The Daily’s smallest model is 3.5 tonnes GVW - and it only goes up from there. Models up to 7.2t GVW are available, which crosses over with proper lorries - but with a more familiar cab environment and easier driving dynamics. The largest panel van models have 19.6 cubic metres of space - that’s more than any other van on the market.

The rear doors open wide, as do the side sliding ones, and the rear can be fitted out with full ply panelling if you desire. One factor that might irritate you is the loading height - the Daily is rear-wheel drive, and that separate chassis just adds even more height, making it quite a step up to get into the rear load area. The problem’s exacerbated on the largest models with twin rear wheels, whereupon you really would prefer to have somebody else with you to pass items down.

Internal and external measurements

Exterior dimensions (3000/3520/3520L/4100/4100L)
Exterior length: 5,149mm/5,669mm/6,047mm/7,234mm/7,607mm
Exterior width: 2,010mm
Exterior height (H1/H2/H3): 2,280mm/2,660mm/2,860mm

Interior load length (3000/3520/3520L/4100/4100L)
To bulkhead: 2,610mm/3,130mm/3,540mm/4,680mm/5,125mm

Interior loading width
Max: 1,740mm
Between wheel arches: 1,317mm

Interior loading height (H1/H2/H3)
Max height: 1,545mm/1,900mm/2,100mm

Rear door aperture size (H1/H2/H3)
Height: 1,450mm/1,800mm/2,000mm
Width: 1,530mm

Side door aperture size (H1/H2/H3)
Height: 1,425mm/1,800mm/1,800mm
Width (3000/others): 1,100mm/1,260mm

Towing capacity

All diesel Dailys can tow up to 3,500kg with no optional extras or upgrades required, making it one of the best vans for towing.

Payload

There are so many variants of the Daily, and the approach to optional extras is quite ad-hoc, so defining a payload is a very individual process. As a representative example, though, the 3.5t panel van we drove, fitted with an automatic gearbox, the 156hp engine and a few desirable options packs, had a payload of 1,068kg.

The Daily’s heavyweight construction means that to keep it under the magic 3.5t barrier (after which most people will need an upgraded driving licence) the payload is quite limited. Expect max payloads to be around 200-300kg less than a similar Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit or Renault Master.

If your licence allows it - and for older drivers, or those who have commercial vehicle licences, this won’t be a problem - and you can get around the limited payload by simply specifying a larger GVW chassis.

Upgraded cab still feels quite rustic, but it’s easy to use and tech is implemented well

For such a large van, the Daily’s cab is a little cramped for tall drivers, with the seat hitting the bulkhead before your legs can really get comfortable. It encourages a more truck-style driving position, with the steering wheel positioned flatter and your seat set very upright, in contrast to the more car-like setup you get in other large vans.

The cab is wide enough for three, though, and the middle passenger doesn’t have to contend much with the pod for the gearshift because it’s positioned very close to the driver.

The Daily’s seats feel quite thinly upholstered at first, but they use memory foam to give reasonable support and comfort over long distances. For additional squidginess, you can opt for a pneumatically-suspended driver’s seat, too.

The dashboard is simply laid out with plenty of physical controls. Unlike the latest Ford Transit, you do get a full set of climate control dials, as well as a couple of rows of switches for commonly-used functions. They’re set underneath an infotainment screen - either 7.0 or 10.0 inches across. This includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and is quite simple to use once you’ve got the hang of it, but the Transit and Sprinter are both more intuitive to use.

The Daily does get the option of TomTom navigation - including special routing to avoid narrow roads, low bridges or weight restrictions. There’s also built-in Amazon Alexa voice control.

There’s also a digital instrument cluster, which is a bit busy - but this is a rare feature on a large panel van, and it’s nice to have as it shows more information than traditional dials ever could.

Storage spaces aren’t the best. There are cupholders at either end of the dash, but the glovebox isn’t massive and the useful shelf above it has had to make way for the standard passenger airbag. However, passengers are now very well-catered for when it comes to their devices - an optional pack brings four USB ports across the width of the dashboard, and even an optional wireless charger.

Build quality is solid but the materials are firmly chosen for their hardiness rather than their plushness. The plastics are universally hard and scratchy, and if you don’t have the luxury of the leather-wrapped steering wheel the standard plastic affair is quite rough and sticky, which isn’t very pleasant.

Again, the Daily has so many potential variants that official fuel economy is too variable to cite here. The official figure for a 3.5t Daily with the Hi-Matic gearbox is 34.6mpg and 214g/km of CO2. In the real world we found low-30s achievable when lightly loaded.

The Hi-Matic box improves economy on longer runs or motorway journeys, as it has a higher top gear than the manual. It also reduces the number of wear components, so it should reduce running costs in the long term. As part of Iveco’s suite of connected fleet management options, controllers can lock their vehicles into ‘Eco’ mode remotely - reducing engine power and applying a speed limiter, which is a good way to reduce overall running costs.

Euro NCAP tested the Daily’s advanced driver assistance tech and gave it a Gold score. Not only does it get a wide array of systems as standard including autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping aids and blind-spot monitoring, but these systems have been assessed to work as advertised - always reassuring.

In terms of more passive safety a driver and passenger airbag come as standard, which even in 2024 isn’t a given.

An alarm is fitted, and as an option a tracker can be too - Iveco’s partnered with a dedicated security centre which claims a 95% recovery rate, which is very reassuring.

The Daily is built tough, and so reliability is rarely a concern for these vehicles - problems over the years have usually been limited to smaller components rather than any pervading issues with the engine or chassis.

To make ownership more reassuring, Iveco offers truck-style aftercare. Iveco dealers are geared to support large fleets of even larger vehicles, owned by operators who simply will not accept too much downtime. That means you get extended opening hours to facilitate servicing the Daily outside of your business hours, a 24-hour, 365-day breakdown service, and various maintenance packages to help spread costs.

Servicing tends to be very thorough, and Iveco dealers are well-stocked with parts so repairs should be swift too. The downside is that there aren’t actually that many of these dealers, but you should be able to plan ahead as they’re spread quite well over the UK.

Iveco’s telematics and connected services help here, too. Using the fleet management software and an array of constantly-monitored parameters, Iveco aims to offer preventative maintenance, spotting the signs of a problem before it develops into a proper breakdown.

The Daily’s warranty is five years or 100,000 miles - among the best in this class - and service intervals can be extended as high as 37,000 miles, again a class-leading figure.