- This 2003 Mercedes-Benz Unimog was sold in the U.S. through Freightliner dealers.
- Its 6.4-liter inline-six diesel produces 700 pound-feet of torque.
- The seats have air suspension, just like your local city bus.
Daimler has been producing the Unimog since 1951. This truck’s history isn’t one of fun, but one of work; the Unimog’s ability to tackle nearly any kind of terrain has made it a vital component of emergency services, logging companies, you name it. But the Unimog also can be driven on public roads and blot out the sun over an entire city block. Here’s your chance to do just that.
This 2003 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U500 is currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. This truck has lived its entire life in the U.S.; while most Unimogs come from Europe or other places that aren’t the U.S., some ‘Mogs were sold here through Freightliner dealerships in the early 2000s.
This one has been repainted black, presumably because the sight of a gargantuan work truck rolling around wasn’t imposing enough. It has a pretty standard bed with foldable side panels, but what gives the Unimog its legendary status is hidden behind what little sheet metal exists. This one has three locking differentials, pneumatic hookups, a power take-off shaft, portal axles, and perhaps most importantly, a 6.4-liter inline-six diesel engine making 260 horsepower and 700 pound-feet of torque. You’ll be pulling entire villages out of snow drifts, becoming a local legend in the process.
While the Unimog’s vibes are purely utilitarian, the cabin isn’t exactly punishing in its austerity. Not only do you get a JVC CD player—mounted overhead, no less—but there’s also a tachometer with a whopping 3000-rpm redline and a set of air-suspension seats with a fun city-bus print on the upholstery. The current owner added air conditioning, because this truck probably generates enough heat to count as a celestial body.
The only bummer with this example is that its CarFax report lists an accident, but considering this is a Unimog, we really don’t want to know what happened to the other guy.
This auction wraps up on February 1.
Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree.