With sport utility vehicles getting bigger and bigger, perhaps it was inevitable: Freightliner Corp., 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 rim and almost three feet taller than the tallest sport utility. Its front seat, mounted six feet high, is reached by a three-step ladder.
The Unimog, with a base price of $84,000, is 20 feet long and seven feet wide; more than a foot longer than the Ford Excursion, the longest sport utility on the market; and nearly two feet wider than a typical car and 3.5 inches wider than even a Hummer, a General Motors Corp. vehicle based on an American military transport.
Most remarkable is the Unimog’s weight: 12,500 pounds, more than two Chevrolet Suburban sport utility vehicles or four Toyota Camry sedans. The vehicle gets about 10 miles to the gallon of diesel fuel.
