Sunday, April 04, 2010

Mercedes G-Class G-Wagen army vehicles, Peugeot P4, and USMC IFAV

The Mercedes Gelandewagen is used by a lot of armies around the world.  I guarantee that you will be surprised with some of the countries that use it.

Australia (note the 6x6s)

Canada

Finland

The Netherlands

France?!  The proud French stuck a Peugeot engine and transmission in what is essentially a G-wagen and called it a Peugeot P4.

U.S.A.  In the good old days of DaimlerChrysler, 2.9 liter turbo-diesel engined G-wagens were used by the U.S. Marines as recon and fast attack vehicles.  They were chosen because two of these could fit (barely) inside a Chinook helicopter and a CH-53E could handle four (two inside, two underneath).


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget, the Puch company from Austria also builds a "G wagon" with a distinct, seperate "Puch" branding, mostly for military use.

http://www.army-technology.com/projects/mercedesgwagon/mercedesgwagon3.html

The company (Steyr-Puch) is quite interesting, as can be seen from some of the cars for sale here:

http://www.autoscout24.eu/List.aspx?vis=1&state=A&make=15646&model=16566&fregfrom=1&fregto=1&pricefrom=1000&page=1&maxresults=500&results=20&ustate=N,U&um=True&sort=price&pool=1

Here are some more links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steyr-Daimler-Puch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puch_500

All the best,
Etienne

Abdul said...

Hi!

Actualy, some european worked together with steyr daimler puch for 4wd drives, as the old fiat panda. I think the G was from Steyr and mercedes took it in, but don't nail me on that. Another cool offroad vehicle was built by steyr, the "haflinger" and "pinzgauer" (both called after special haul-horses). They sold the rights to the british :(
But that's austria for you.
Schwarzenegger has a grey Pinzgauer with grey leather interior... :)
It must feel like sitting in a oversized tincan on a leathercouch. I drove the Puch G from my boss once, it feeled that way. But hey, they are very good offroad, who cares about leatherseats anyway when the car is fun and dirty afterwards :D

Greetings from Austria!

And i like this site!

Maxichamp said...

@Abdul: Ahoy from California! I never heard of the Panda 4x4. I will write a piece about it.

A guy in my neighborhood has a Pinzgauer. I'll take some pictures of it.

Don't forget to follow my blog for a chance to win a prize.

Sounddogs.com said...

Peugeot P4 I need to hire a driver of this vehicle to record sound effects in California, Nevada, or Arizona.

If you know a Peugeot P4 please have them contact me!!!

Rob Nokes @ Sounddogs.com

Anonymous said...

Read about the history of the Iltis and it closely parallels the history of the G Wagen.

Great blog, BTW!