Environmental Groups Protest Unimog

D E T R O I T, Feb. 22, 2001 -- Talk about road hogs! Have you driven a Unimog lately?

That's the name of the new four-wheel-drive, 9 feet tall and 7 feet wide vehicle that DaimlerChrysler's Freightliner unit announced it plansto start selling in the United States.

The vehicle, which will come with an $84,000 price tag and has its roots in the German military, is basically a medium duty commercial truck that just happens to have off-road capabilities, according to spokesmen for the U.S. unit of the truck maker.

But they cautioned that the Unimog — which weighs in at a massive12,500 pounds and is two feet wider than an average car — was not aimed at buyers of traditional sport utility vehicles.

Targeting Buyers in the 'Burbs

Rather, the SUV is targeted at people living in America's suburbs: Affluent off-road enthusiasts, fire departments and businesses needing to haul some 13,000 pounds worth of passengers and cargo, according to the New York Times.

The original version of the Unimog, which entered production in Germany 50 years ago, had been used by the U.S.and Swiss armies in the past and was essentially built for heavy lifting.

"This is just the new and improved version that we're going to bring back into the U.S. market as a commercial vehicle," said Debi Nicholson, a spokeswoman for Freightliner at its main U.S. office in Portland, Ore.

"It's used for fire and emergency rescue work," said Nicholson, who added that the rugged truck could also suit municipal buyers for use in snow plowing, among other functions.

The Unimog, which dwarfs the military-inspired Hummer SUV now owned by General Motors, only seats three people including the driver.

And adding to its likely lack of appeal to people out shopping for a family-style SUV, Nicholson and Bruce Barnes, the Unimog market manager at Freightliner, said it takes an experienced truck driver to navigate its manual transmissionwith eight forward gears. It also takes three steps up just to climb into the Unimog driver's seat.

The vehicle, powered by a six-cylinder Mercedes diesel engine, gets only 10 miles per gallon of diesel fuel, less than most gas-guzzling SUVs. And Nicholson said Freightliner was initially expecting to sell only about 300 units in the United States per year, once the Unimog goes on sale next fall.

Protests Ensue

Enviornmental groups have already spoken out against DaimlerChrysler's decision to market the mega vehicle which outsizes not only GM's Hummer but also Ford's excursion, both of which won the Sierra Club's Exxon Valdez Award for Environmental Destruction.

Director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program, DanBecker says the DaimlerSaurus should be extinct. "With new dire warningsfrom scientists about the consequences of global warming, we should belooking for ways to reduce emissions from U.S. sources. Currently U.S.cars and light trucks produce more global warming pollution than all butfour countries, mainly because U.S. auto makers build big, inefficientvehicles. Daimler is making the problem worse with their newDaimlerSaurus".

"With just 5 percent of the world's population, the United Statesalready uses more than one third of the world's transport energy," saidWorldwatch Institute President, Christopher Flavin. "At a time when oilprices and global temperatures are rising, car manufacturers should beinvesting in a new generation of efficient hydrogen-fuelled cars ratherthan another round of gas-guzzling dinosaurs. "

If its hauling capacity were one pound more than the vehicle's 26,000 pound hauling capacity, thedriver would require a Commercial Truck Driver's License.

Even actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the premier muscleman of his generation and a known aficionado of the Hummer, might find the Unimog a bit of a handful, Barnes said.

"We have no expectations of his calling," he said.

The Associated Press and Reuters Contibuted to this report