Multicar gets into gear for the UK
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by Bryan Jarvis and Steve Banner • Multicar's quick-release balland-socket system for demountable bodies is among a series of innovations from the German light chassis-cab manufacturer.
Last year hydrostatic drive was added to its list of options and a new cab should follow before 2000.
A year ago Multicar relaunched its UK model range, but in 1996 it sold exactly six vehicles in this country. That's way down on the 23 a month the company was delivering in the late eighties, most of them for conversion into roadsweepers by Scarab.
Yet despite some lean years in the UK, export manager Dr Hermann Brauer is convinced that Multicar is due for a resurgence on this side of the Channel: "Sales won't be dramatic but we reckon on selling 20 to 25 this year, maybe 40 to 50 in 1998, and upwards of 60 to 80 in 1999." he predicts.
A basic 4x2 Multicar with a tipper body costs some £14,000 (ex-VAT); a 4x4 equipped with a high-reach access platform will set you back £50,000.
Gross weights run from 3.5 to 5.2 tonnes and these days the cab is fully-galvanised and protected by a six-year anti-corrosion warranty.
With Iveco and VW diesel engines, ZF gearboxes and power steering, and axles from combine harvester manufacturer Claas, Brauer believes that the range is better than ever.
No longer state controlled, East German-based Multicar Spezialfahrzeuge's majority shareholder is Deutschebank. It is based at a fully modernised plant at Waltershausen with a new paint shop, cab-assembly section, chassis-frame fabrication section and assembly line.
In earlier days the factory's 1,100 employees built 8,000 to 8,500 Multicars a year, mostly for Eastern Europe. This year a mere 240 workers will build 1,500 (65% being four-wheel drive) of which 82% will be sold in Germany. "Today's Multicar looks the same as it did previously," says Brauer, "but we've switched to up-to-date boughtin Western technology."
VW's 54hp (40kW) 1.9-litre engine appeared in 1992; Multicar believes lveco's 83hp (62kW) 2.8-litre turbo-diesel, which debuted in 1994, is better suited for UK use.
Four-wheel drive aside, Multicar's advantages include the ability to shift as much as three tonnes on a sturdily built chassis only 1.5m wide. That's especially handy if you're squeezing down a narrow city street with cars parked both sides.
Operators can choose from a wide variety of factory-supplied demount bodies with hydraulic power to drive attachments.
Multicar's nearest competitor is Merc's pocket Unimog UX100, but Brauer reckons the two vehicles are not really comparable: "Unimog is only available with hydrostatic drive and is really intended as an attachment carrier," he says. "You can't really use it as an off-road tipper."
Some 40% of Multicar's output goes to municipalities and 30% to local authority sub-contractors, mainly for road cleaning and gully emptying. Almost all the remainder are bought by construction companies.
Multicar's UK sales development manager is John Dunn, who has been involved with the marque since 1982. He mentions that 68 hydrostatic Multicars are already in service with the city authorities in Berlin. They can crawl along at 300 metres an hour if necessary," he reports, "which is ideal if you're, say, inspecting overhead wires."
Both UK main dealers— Municipal Service & Sales in Larkhall, Strathclyde and Hood Engineering Services in Cramlington, Northumbria— deal direct with the factory. "There are four more potential main dealers waiting in the wings," says Brauer, "and 10 to 12 dealers would be a reasonable number for the UK."
Multicar chassis equipped with the latest quick-release, swap-body system will be on show at next week's IVVM exhibition in various guises, including a Hagemann refuse compactor with bin lift, a skip loader and a long-wheelbase three-way tipper.