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One thing about Mercedes-Benz brand is that if a vehicle segment exists, they probably make something in it. As a result of that, you can basically buy everything from a GT1 homologation car all the way to a cement trunk. Falling in one of those segments is basic vans that no one bats an eye at in Europe, though they are a real novelty if you see one running around in North America. Today, we have of those with a little twist.
This is a 1984 Mercedes-Benz 207D that was probably built new as a box truck. Somewhere along the line, someone took off the box and added a pair of transporter ramps that you would think would make a great little car hauler truck. You would think. However, I am here to tell you that this cool little truck isn’t hauling anything.
Here is something you don’t see everyday. This is the mighty 1956 Mercedes-Benz Unimog 401. Believe it or not, this is actually the third generation of the Unimog, as the Unimog 2010 ran from 1951 to 1953, and the original Unimog 70200 ran from 1949 to 1951. Powerful speed demons these were not. The 401 we are looking at today utilized the diesel OM 636 VI car engine that was factory rated at 25 horsepower and 75 ft-lb of torque. It had a manual gearbox with six forward gears and two reverse – for all those times you are pulling from both direction. This example up for sale in Belgium actually underwent a restoration and is probably one of the nicest example out there. The price? Not as crazy as you would expect.
I recently said goodbye to one of the cars in my fleet, a 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D, that I maintained and cared for since 2016. It was a charming and very satisfyingly car that I’m glad I got to experience, but a prime example it was not. While it was finished in the lovely shade of Labrador Blue with a navy MB-Tex interior, it did have nearly 300,000 miles on the odometer. That meant various dings on every panel, rust scabs in all the wrong places, some suspiciously different-colored body panels, and a non-working air conditioning system. If all that was working, it would be a car to keep nearly forever and enjoy, but it just required too much effort considering the list. If I could buy a perfect example, sure, but at what cost? It still only had 68 horsepower when new and was right on the limit of being dangerously slow while trying to merge on the highways and climb long hills. Well, today we do have a nearly perfect example. But it comes at a very steep cost, as you might have guessed.
Back in 2020 I took a look at an oddball – the 1990 Bertone Freeclimber – which was on this page solely because of the power plant. In that case, it was BMW’s relatively unloved M21 turbodiesel inline-six. That engine also found its way into the weirdly cool Vixen motor home and a Lincoln Continental, and when unloved there, the BMW 524td there. But in Europe, you had the option to install it on your E30, as well! Only in this case, it didn’t have the turbocharger. Dubbed the 324d, it was available from 1984 to 1990 and…you guessed it….relatively unpopular. Perhaps that’s because it was the least powerful E30 option, and it was only offered as a sedan. 0-60 times made the underpowered 320i seem sprightly; it took the 324d over 16 seconds to hit 60. BMW finally added a turbocharged 324td model for the end of production, but they still weren’t sold in big numbers. One of the late naturally aspirated examples has turned up for sale in California, though:
For a while, if you were a diesel and wagon fan, you had some options; Volkswagen graced us with a manual TDi Jetta and Golf five-door, Mercedes-Benz floated the E-Class over here, and last but not least was BMW. The F31 launched in 2012, replacing the E91 we just looked at:
2011 BMW 328i xDrive Sports Wagon 6-Speed
It was larger in pretty much every way, but also took on a more aggressive stance. It looked lower and meaner than the E91, especially when outfitted with M equipment. Gone were the manual and six-cylinder options, but you did get the option of selecting even more trim lines and a diesel, to boot. That’s exactly what we have here; a well-optioned 2017 328d xDrive, representing the end of F31 production. As the G21 hasn’t yet arrived and there’s currently no wagon available from BMW, nor are there plans to bring the diesel over yet, this really represents a unique opportunity:
