Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (5136)	2/21/2001 10:38:01 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

Wait'll the enviros get a load of this. The mother of all SUVs. LOL Freightliner's 'Unimog' to Dwarf SUVs Keith Bradsher, New York Times Wednesday, February 21, 2001 ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle With sport utility vehicles getting bigger and bigger, perhaps it was inevitable: Freightliner, the nation's biggest maker of 18-wheelers, plans to start selling a four-wheel-drive vehicle that dwarfs even the largest family vehicles on the road. Based on a German military transport, the vehicle, called the Unimog, makes even the Hummer look petite. It is 9 feet 7 inches tall, nearly the height of a basketball net and almost 3 feet taller than the tallest SUV. Its front seat, mounted 6 feet high, is reached by a three-step ladder. The Unimog is 20 feet long and 7 feet wide; more than a foot longer than the Ford Excursion, the longest sport utility on the market now; nearly 2 feet wider than a typical car, and 3.5 inches wider than even General Motors' Hummer, which is based on an American military transport. The Unimog is so wide that, by federal regulation, it must carry truck marker lights across the top of the front and back. Most remarkable is the Unimog's weight: 12,500 pounds. That is more than two Chevrolet Suburban SUVs or four Toyota Camry sedans. The company says the vehicle gets about 10 miles to the gallon of diesel fuel, less even than the most fuel-hungry SUVs and pickups. "You don't need roads," says the cover of the Unimog sales brochure, "when you can make your own." The vehicle will sell for a base price of $84,000. Freightliner will start taking orders for the Unimog in October, with manufacturing to begin in January, said Bruce Barnes, the Unimog marketing manager at Freightliner, which is owned by DaimlerChrysler AG. Freightliner will sell the Unimog mainly in suburban markets, regardless of region. The company's initial sales goals are modest. Freightliner hopes to sell 1, 000 a year at first, with just 250 going to individuals -- affluent off-road enthusiasts and people who simply like to drive noticeable vehicles. "Moms will want to take it to the grocery store," Barnes said. It's a head-turning vehicle." The rest will go to fire departments and businesses that plan to adapt them for civic and commercial use. But if the vehicle is a success, production can be increased, Barnes said. Freightliner describes the Unimog as an off-road vehicle, but it is not a true sport utility. The $84,000 base version will somewhat resemble a pickup with enormous front and side windows to help drivers see the traffic below. Unimog is short for the German "universal motor Geraet," which Freightliner translates as "universal engine-driven apparatus." Customers may equip vehicles with a covered pickup bed and jump seats, and many other options are available, Barnes said. "Leather interior, GPS navigation systems and high-end stereo systems are all available -- just in case you'd like to spoil yourself," the Unimog brochure says. Walnut interior trim, "mood lights" and even a vertical exhaust pipe, just like the exhausts on real 18-wheelers, are also optional. The Unimog is exempt from most federal safety, air pollution and fuel economy regulations because it exceeds the weight cutoffs for such rules. It will meet federal air pollution standards for medium-duty trucks -- standards that are much more lenient than those for cars. Freightliner is studying whether the Unimog can meet the more-stringent rules that California has set for trucks sold in the state. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page D7 sfgate.com