Auto Review Iveco Album and its constituent brands: Magirus-Deutz, Fiat, OM, Unic, Lancia, Pegaso etc

The histories of some of the constituent member companies of Iveco are complex. In this publication we describe some of the tributaries which led into the mainstream manufacturers, which in turn eventually were combined as Iveco. The story of Deutz goes back into the pre-history of the motor vehicle, with the four-stroke engine invented by Otto. The Magirus fire fighting equipment company dated from the 1860s, and it amalgamated with Deutz in the 1930s, their vehicles badged as Magirus-Deutz from then on. Fiat, itself a leading maker of commercial vehicles since the Great War era, acquired the truck-building activities of many Italian companies, from SPA and Lancia to Bianchi and OM. Their stories are recorded here, as forerunners to Fiat commercial vehicles, and thus to Iveco. Unic was a leading French truck manufacturer, also taken over by Fiat in 1966. This was the agglomeration of commercial vehicle makers which came together to form Iveco in 1975, but the group continued to grow. Iveco went on to absorb other companies, including Astra of Italy in 1986, and Pegaso of Spain in 1990. Pegaso brought in its recently-acquired UK subsidiary, Seddon Atkinson. A joint venture with Renault (and the various bus-building concerns Renault had taken over down the years) to create Irisbus eventually became Iveco Bus. It wasn’t just bus-building that was combined into a single entity. Fire and emergency vehicles were combined as EuroFire at the Magirus-Deutz site in Ulm, and military vehicles by all the contributing members came under the Iveco Defence Vehicles umbrella. All of these entities, and more, are described in this publication.