Clear the way: Giant SUV to hit U.S. roads
February 21, 2000
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Frankfurt, Germany (AP)-- It's the mother of all SUVs: 9 feet 7 inches tall, 20 feet long, 7 feet wide and a stunning 12,500 pounds.
"If you want the ultimate in versatile vehicles, this is it," DaimlerChrysler spokesman Othmar Stein said today in announcing the so-called Unimog, a truck currently made by Mercedes in Germany. "This thing makes the Hummer look anemic."
DaimlerChrysler will start taking U.S. orders for the Unimog through its U.S. unit Freightliner, the country's top maker of heavy trucks, in October.
The diesel-fueled vehicle, which has a 52-gallon tank and gets about 10 miles per gallon, will still be produced in Germany, Stein said.
But the new thrust is to target the American market: affluent off-road enthusiasts, fire departments and businesses needing to haul about 13,000 pounds of passengers and cargo.
Stein said it is unlikely to catch on as a favorite for soccer moms because of the price of the vehicle, which he would only say will be "very expensive."
A report in The New York Times put the base price at $84,000.
The Unimog is a foot longer than Ford Motor Co.'s Excursion and 3.5 inches wider than the Hummer, a vehicle whose design is based on an American military transport.
The Unimog sales brochures sums it up this way: "You don't need roads when you can make your own."
Freightliner hopes to sell about 1,000 Unimogs a year, Stein said.
