Country living

When Chris took delivery of a Daf XF Space Cab after T&D Editor Dougie had it for a week in the summer, he was sceptical but ended up pleasantly surprised. Also, a dramatic incident for the Maddison Foden…

- CHRIS MADDISON

I’ve never really hidden the fact that I’m not a lover of Daf, so I entered into the XF deposited in my yard by Dougie with a less than glowing level of enthusiasm.

Add to that the Eco set up, due to it being a training vehicle to impress the company bean counters, and all the little lights in my brain began to go out one by one. But to be honest, once I’d accepted that I’d have to turn off all the Greta-friendly gubbins every time I got back in, it really wasn’t a bad place to be.

The cab is airy, the controls are very well laid out and the seat and driving position are both within scope for my fussy requirements. I had my daughter with me for a run up to Dundee and after a Sheffield steel load we swapped trailers at Killingholme and cracked on.

The difference between this and the previous Daf I’d had on demo was the TraXon gearbox. Gone was the snail’s pace uptake through the gears and oddly jerky changes, replaced by swift, smooth upshifts that seemed to guess my next move long before I did.