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1966 Mercedes Benz Unimog 404s With 400K

front left

Look what Glenn B found on craigslist in Brookwood, British Columbia. Thanks for the tip, sir! This must be the most cheerful one I’ve ever seen and at $10,000 its about as cheap as they come.. These Unimogs have a great reputation for going about anywhere and being very dependable. They’ve been used for all kinds of things, including in construction mounted with backhoes and as hi-railers moving railcars. In Alpine towns in Europe, they’re fitted with snow blowers to clear the roads.  The 404S was introduced in 1955 and was produced into the 1970s.  A tracked version is still produced today! I have good and bad memories of these in North Africa in the Sahara in the early seventies. The Moroccan Army had a lot of Unimogs and they were mostly the good guys. Unfortunately, the Polisario had stolen a bunch of them from the Moroccans, so you never knew if the Unimog you saw was friend or foe until you were in their field of fire. This one needs tires, exhaust work and a transmission fork. If I’m counting my zeros right, this has over 400,000 miles! The Bundeswehr take good care of their stuff, so it should be good for many more miles.

dash

It looks to be in great shape in these pictures. They treat them a lot better in Germany than they do in Mali and Algeria I’m sure and surely someone has done some restoration work beyond the yellow respray. Inside is what you’d expect of a utilitarian vehicle, very basic.

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It’s a great rig, but for unique applications. It would be kind of hard to explain to the wife if you brought this home. They actually ride pretty well over the tough stuff though. This would be great on a ranch. I’m thinking you folks must have some interesting ideas on how to put this Unimog to work. I’d love to hear them!

Comments

  1. Avatar Dan h

    The Unimog has got to be one of the toughest 4×4’s built. I rode some pretty rough terrain in a Unimog while in South Mexico. You just can’t kill them. If I had room, I’d buy one in a heartbeat!

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  2. Avatar Horse Radish

    Yellow ?
    Why not go all the way and paint it orange, that yellow looks several years old and looks really tacky. The guy must have taken the local spray can supply of yellow paint 100 miles around. I am also surprised he did not spray over the gauges and seats .
    “Needs tires and transmission fork.” …. $10 000 and the opportunity to spend (quite a bit) more.
    BUT, in all fairness original listing says “odometer reading: 26 000”. My guess in kilometers. BUT these things have a top speed of 50mph @ 4000 rpm,so, not really a pleasant drive and that would account the low mileage. These were never driven that much.
    The only real use you would have with this, if you lived several miles up the side of a mountain, and that’s what these are good for.
    .
    Too much money for this, the way it sits…. (Bundeswehr sold these off 20 years ago, so their maintenance has been a while) and definitely not in faded yellow
    ….(deduct 50 % !!)
    Canada ? check for rust !

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    • Avatar Horse Radish

      And why waste 4 of 11 photos on the four tires that need replacement ?

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    • Avatar Bobsmyuncle

      It’s in Vancouver, no concern for rust especially on a Mog with its heavy gauge sheet metal.

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    • Avatar Bobsmyuncle

      Deduct 50%??

      So you are proposing a $5000 Unimog.

      Not likely.

      You might want to do some research. I tried to post some references but the post won’t pass moderation.

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    • Avatar MountainMan

      Ok so you obviously don’t think much of these but maybe look around a little bit and see what kind of money these are bringing these days and the following they have as well. This is about the least expensive one that is running and driving that I’ve seen in a while. This will be gone before you can complain about the gas mileage!

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      • Avatar Dave Wright

        The military is selling 10-20 of these a week with Freightliner badging, front loaders and backhoe attachments, newer but selling for around 10K tight now. These old ones are past there pricing bubble. I bought a late model one from the BLM in Winnemucca 15 years ago. A rookie had taken it zooming out across the prairie and caught the front plow blade at about 40MPH. It was a 10,000 mile truck. The kid was thrown through the windshield and the frame was folded where the plow attached but it was like new. We replaced the entire frame, windshield and sold it for a good profit. They are great trucks but this is an example of sometimes newer is better.

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      • Avatar Bobsmyuncle

        @ Dave Wright

        Again check values of these 10 000 is a cheap in for a Mog.

        “… this is an example of sometimes newer is better.”

        That applies to every vehicle ever, if you are regarding them as an implement.

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      • Avatar Dave Wright

        People overpay for things every day. I have owned 3 Mougs, all fun and interesting vehicles but the modern ones are in a different league. Why would anyone pay over retail for an item that can be purchased by anyone wholesale and save 50% unless you just want to spend the money. The group here should be better than that…….few of us are typical retail buyers.

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      • Avatar Bobsmyuncle

        Why is a ’68 911 going for 70-100 grand while a 996 goes for 40-50 grand? The 996 is clearly the better machine.

        This shouldn’t be a mystery to any visitors to this site should it?

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  3. Avatar Bert

    these backhou mogs youre speaking about, are a whole different leage, they are Unimog 406, and are in no way comparable with your 404, they have a 5.6L6 diesel while your 404 has a 2.2L6 petrol engine.
    406es are sold in Europe for 10.000-20.000€, while they try to sell you a 404 for 1.500-2.000€, so go count your beans…

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  4. Avatar Bert

    second thing is, the German army drove them, drove,drove, and then they were sceduled for periodic maintenance which they had in 4 stages, and when the went in for stage 4 maintenance, they were taken in by the factory or a depot, were torn apart, and all components were renovated, neccesery or not. that means; the axles, gearbox, engine,cab etc were stripped, sandblasted, bearings, joints, everything that had a bit of wear was replaced and put back together, after that the piece was resprayed.
    After that the Unimog was reassembled using a lot of new parts, (fuel tanks, speedo’s, covers, etc.) and sent out, back to their units. as a proof of that every Mog treated like that received a type shield with “stufe 4” under the bonnet where you find the VIN. and also all the separate components have a “stufe 4” marker rivetted to them.

    That explaines why a lot of these vehicles have, at time of selling off to the public, these low milages.

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  5. Avatar Dave Wright

    These are still 5000.00 trucks in Europe. There are too many of them on the market for appreciation right now. I saw runners for 1500 Euros in Austria

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  6. Avatar yanmarley

    Boy – tough crowd for Unimogs today – even to complaining about the color and photos of the tires – this thing does not seem to be that bad of a deal when you factor in the Canuck buck. There is most of your 50% discount – and you don’t have to pay for shipping from Europe, Dave. Should help with your flip so you can sell it to a “typical retail buyer”. I stand with @Bobsmyuncle and @MountainMan on this one. Wish I were in a position to take this on. Kinda wondering where the 400,000 mile staement came from as well.

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  7. Avatar geomechs Member

    There’s a guy recently restored a ’79. It wasn’t running very well so he brought it over to the shop to see if we could tune it up. It turned out that the injection pump was shot. A complete overhaul of the injection pump and it was going very well; even gained another 10 mph, which on a Unimog is impressive. Pretty nice job overall.

    Like 0

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