Not convinced? Even DaimlerChrysler seemed unsure last week, when it was grinding gears trying to figure out the best way to pitch its new king-of-the-road 4-by-4. On Wednesday it revealed plans to launch the snub-nosed behemoth in America in 2002, with a modest sales goal of about 1,000 units a year. Unimog–German shorthand for universal motorized machine–is a work truck that’s been used to haul military troops and fight fires for 50 years. Now, DaimlerChrysler is re-engineering it to meet the exaggerated tastes of upscale American SUV buyers. A slick brochure shows the Unimog zipping along city streets under the headline: tough, rugged, and eminently civilized. At 20 feet long and more than nine feet tall, it will dwarf the biggest SUVs, which a sales brochure dismisses as “cute.” With the Unimog, it adds, “you don’t need roads, when you can make your own.”
But word of Unimog’s impending arrival set off a firestorm. DaimlerChrysler, already racing to fix its money-losing Chrysler division, was pilloried for building the ultimate politically incorrect vehicle. The media compared it to Godzilla and T-Rex, environmentalists criticized Unimog’s meager 10 miles per gallon and safety advocates warned it could crush lesser cars. “They should call it the Daimlersaurus Wrecks,” huffed Dan Becker of the Sierra Club. Auto analysts predicted the Unimog would be DOA. After all, even SUV buyers seem to have reached their limits: Ford Excursion sales have plunged 18 percent since October. Says Memphis Ford dealer Kent Ritchey: “People got the Excursion home and couldn’t fit it in their garage.”
By the end of the week, DaimlerChrysler was furiously backtracking. Its Freightliner division, which will sell the SUV, stressed that most Unimogs will go to commercial buyers like fire departments. “This is not a comfortable, around-town kind of vehicle,” said spokeswoman Debi Nicholson. “It’s not going to fit in your driveway without cracking it.” The company acknowledges it still intends to sell the 4-by-4 to individual buyers, but now downplays those efforts. “We always considered these off-highway enthusiasts… a very small part of the Unimog customer base,” marketing manager Bruce Barnes wrote in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK. He added: “Unimog is not intended to compete in the consumer sport-utility market.”
But the Unimog might be tailor-made for some consumers. After all, the Hummer has a small but dedicated following, and automakers are targeting upscale buyers craving eye-catching wheels. And when the Unimog hits the streets, it won’t just turn heads, it will crane necks.
