Unimog: Smooth on the mu
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• by Kevin Swallow Daimler-Chrysler has reduced the price of its all-terrain Mercedes-Benz Unimogs by rationalising options and components. It has modernised Unimog assembly by moving it from Gaggenau to the commercial vehicle plant at Worth, in Germany, resulting in a price reduction of up to 8% against the old U1550L-U2450L range.
As Unimog gave details of its streamlined production system it launched the new U3000U5000 model series for the firefighting, disaster aid, energy, military and transport sectors.
The savings have been made by reducing the number of components from 30,000 to just 3500, reducing cab options from 46 to six, frame options from 135 to four, and heavy-duty Unimog variants from 36 to four.
The Unimog has been in production in various forms since 1951. In recent years, its sales peaked at 4,611 in 1992 and then fell back steadily to 2,051 in 2000, before turning around last year.
Modernising the product and production methods is designed to boost annual sales to nearly 3,000 by 2005.
UK sales director Mark Hopkins reports that about 100
Unimogs are sold in Britain every year. Competing against independent specialist products and agricultural tractors, the Unimog sells to the sort of customers who tend to keep hold of them for longer periods than traditional CV buyers. "We have to go out and sell the product to new customers all of the