The Unic Daily was the French-market version of the Fiat Daily, the light commercial van introduced in 1978. While Italian buyers knew it as the Fiat Daily, OM Grinta or Alfa Romeo AR8, in France it carried the Unic name, at a time when Unic was the French arm of Fiat’s commercial-vehicle division.
Unic Daily at a glance
| Maker | Fiat V.I., later Iveco; sold in France as Unic |
|---|---|
| Production | first generation 1978–1999; Unic badge in the first series |
| Assembly | Iveco Suzzara plant, near Mantova, Italy |
| Class | light commercial van, 3.0–4.0 tonnes GVW at launch |
| Models at launch | 30F8, 35F8, 40F8 |
| Frame | separate ladder frame, as on heavier commercial vehicles |
| Cab | three seats as standard, six with the double cab |
| Engines | 2.5-litre diesel of 72 hp; 2.5-litre turbodiesel of 95 hp from 1985 |
| Load volume | up to 17 m3 in the long van version |
| Also sold as | Fiat Daily, OM Grinta, Alfa Romeo AR8, Magirus Daily, Saurer |
| Second series | TurboDaily, introduced in 1985 |
The Unic Daily is described within the articles on the Iveco Daily; no free photograph of a Unic-badged first-generation Daily was found, so the original record photograph is kept.
History of the Unic Daily
Fiat’s commercial-vehicle division had two 3.5-tonne models at the beginning of the 1970s: the bonneted Fiat 616N and the forward-control OM 40. Work on a single replacement began in 1973. The result, presented in 1978, was the Daily, a light utility vehicle that succeeded the Fiat 242 and the Fiat 616N and was immediately well received for its robustness and versatility.
The Daily was designed around a separate ladder frame, the kind of chassis used by heavier trucks rather than the car-like unitary construction of the Fiat Ducato. That frame allowed many bodies to be fitted: panel van, chassis cab, double cab, minibus, tipper and others. The cab had three seats as standard and could be doubled to carry six. In its long form the van offered up to 17 m3 of load space, which made it a worthy successor to the Fiat 242, sold in France as the Citroën C35, although production of the 242 continued.
At its launch the range consisted of three models: 30F8, 35F8 and 40F8. The first number was the gross vehicle weight in Italian quintals, so 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 tonnes; the F stood for Fiat, the engine maker, and the last digit was the engine output in tens of horsepower DIN. The same vehicle was marketed under the national brands of the Fiat group: Fiat Daily, OM Grinta and later OM TurboGrinta, and Alfa Romeo AR8 in Italy, Magirus Daily in Germany, Saurer in Switzerland and Unic Daily in France. Until 1982 these versions carried a small Iveco I at the bottom right of the grille. Between 1982 and 1983 the Iveco logo moved to the centre of the grille, with the Fiat or Unic name reduced to a badge at the bottom right.
The first series ran until 1985, when the turbodiesel version was launched as the TurboDaily. Its 2,445 cc Fiat-Sofim direct-injection turbodiesel developed 92 hp DIN at 3,800 rpm, raising power by 28 per cent and torque by 42 per cent over the first series and cutting both noise and fuel consumption. A four-wheel-drive Daily range appeared in 1984, and in 1986 Iveco presented an electric version of the van. A facelift in 1990 brought a completely revised cab, and from that second series references to the national brands disappeared in favour of Iveco alone. In 1996 came the Daily CNG, described by French Wikipedia as the first natural-gas van in the world, and in 1999 the second-generation Daily was launched and named Van of the Year 2000.
Design and features
- Truck-derived chassis: a separate ladder frame instead of the unitary body of the Fiat Ducato, allowing many conversions.
- Unic badge in France: the same van was sold through the French Unic network as the Unic Daily.
- Practical cab: three seats in the standard cab and six in the double-cab version.
- Large load volume: up to 17 m3 in the long panel van.
Unic Daily versions
- 30F8: 3.0-tonne model with a diesel engine of about 80 hp DIN.
- 35F8: 3.5-tonne model, the core of the range.
- 40F8: 4.0-tonne model.
- Unic Daily: the French-market version of the first series.
- TurboDaily: the 1985 turbodiesel series.
- Daily 4×4: four-wheel-drive range added in 1984.
The Unic Daily belongs to the last chapter of the marque, alongside the Unic 75 PC of the early 1980s; the last heavy trucks designed by Unic itself are covered in the Izoard article, and the whole history is in the Unic collection.
Sources
- Iveco Daily, English Wikipedia: launch, models, engines, Unic version, later series
- Iveco Daily, French Wikipedia: project history, cab, logo changes, TurboDaily, CNG
- Unic (entreprise), French Wikipedia: place of Unic in the Fiat and Iveco groups
