If I buy a Hafflinger, what am I getting myself into?

[texas pinzgauer]

I presume some of you have seen my mention of possibly selling my 712M. I've always liked the Hafflinger and I've had an opportunity to see one up close that belongs to the gentleman who was the Hafflinger dealer here in Houston. (Yes he was and I can prove it!)

I'd love to hear about parts availability (same sources as our Pinzgauers?), insurance (same as our Pinzgauers?) and any other major issues that you might care to address for me before I do decide to look for one.

Any guidance on this subject will be appreciated!

[Jim Molloy]

Texas Pinzgauer,
What are you getting yourself into if you purchase a Haflinger? Short answer: A great deal of fun! Not nearly as mechanically complex as the Pinzgauer but still engineered to an extremely high standard. Some of the Pinzgauer parts sources will also sell Haflinger parts but there are some Haflinger parts sources that do not deal with Pinzgauer spares.

As far as insurance goes, I would suspect the insurance for a Haflinger will be similar to a Pinzgauer.

Regarding your friend being a Haflinger dealer in Houston, I would be very interested in learning more of the details of this. Please go to:

http://tdc.haflinger-4wd.com/countries/usa.php

Do you know if her worked for Speedwell in Beaumont or some other location? I was born and grew up in Houston and an very curious about the Houston/Haflinger connection. No doubt a large number of the North American spec trucks came through the Port of Houston.

Hope this helps.

Take care.

Jim Molloy
Waldersee Farm
http://www.northwestmogfest.com

[westernair]

Join the Haflinger yahoo sites and read the archives. You will glean alot of info of of them.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Haflinger/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Haf ... thAmerica/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ste ... ger_Alive/
These sites plus the Haflinger section here on the real4x4 will help you make a good decision on weather a Hafy is right for you.

[M Wehrman]

You will have no regret! Smiles to the gallon and everone wants a ride!
Mark

[TechMOGogy]

Join the Haflinger yahoo sites and read the archives. You will glean alot of info of of them.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Haflinger/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Haf ... thAmerica/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ste ... ger_Alive/
These sites plus the Haflinger section here on the real4x4 will help you make a good decision on weather a Hafy is right for you.

I think we need to get away from all these seperate Yahoo groups and get a Haflinger Forum going!
I just find it silly to check 3 forums for the same thing
I think I will metion it to Jim M and see what he thinks

[David Dunn]

I think we need to get away from all these seperate Yahoo groups and get a Haflinger Forum going!
I just find it silly to check 3 forums for the same thing
I think I will metion it to Jim M and see what he thinks

And there are more groups than that...
Every new forum thinks it will be the the end of all other forums.
Seen it with Rovers, Pinzes and Mogs... and the Mog elist just won't die... old timers won't change
I have squatter's rights here!

David,
Think of a scaled down Pinz with the same expenses

[HafWit]

A word of warning......

You might end up catching the same ailment that DD has.
First you lose touch with reality.....assuming you were ever connected to begin with.
Your friends find excuses to avoid you, and their facial expressions are suggestive that you are emitting offensive, perhaps even excrementicious odors.
You start madly buying things: vehicles, trailers, horses, electronics, and other stuff until you have no further space available.
You don't stop there.....you keep buying and buying.
You find unique places to keep your stuff--storage facilities, friends' homes, your business parking lot, vacant lots, etc.
You join every online forum you can find, and you comment on EVERYTHING
You convince yourself that you are the most intelligent person on every forum you visit--that everybody else is comparatively Neanderthal
...and then..... . .... .. ..... ... . .. .... .... ... ... . .

JUST KIDDING! SORRY DD (I HOPE YOU CAN TAKE A JOKE!)

You will love your Haflinger. They are the coolest horses. We were talking about horses, right?

Cheers,
Greg

[texas pinzgauer]

These are all good and useful comments folks, please keep them coming! All of this is just talk at this stage. This time of year, the 712 gets lots of use. It's the summer time when I look at it and dread using it because it's SO friggin' hot!

The Haflinger (one F or two?) looks entertaining so it's worth learning more about.

Thanks for the leads on the various forums but I doubt I'll sign up for all of those. This one will be more than sufficient for now at least.

I have not studied all of the stuff the previous poster shared but there was a dealer here in Houston who sold these trucks. The owner of the dealership (he also sells Aston Martin, Mercedes, Lotus and Volvo cars) marketed them when they became available and he kept one for himself.

It was seemingly a "barn find" and was found within the dealership a few years ago so the owner asked some of his technicians in the Volvo store to make it road worthy again. Apparently it had very limited use. It has a full canvas body which I don't find as attractive as the more scaled back tops that I've seen on most of them.

Anyway, he's not selling his so I thought that I needed to begin looking elsewhere if I really wanted to move forward with this plan.

By the way, perhaps y'all could weigh in and give me a sense of the price range I should expect to see with these trucks. An example in very good to excellent condition is what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

David

[Jim Molloy]

Dave,

Only one "F" in Haflinger. A Haflinger will likely be just as hot in the summer as your Pingauer unless your Pinz is the enclosed K model rather than than more open M model. To get a feel for some prices, you might look at Scott Ingham's Expedition Imports site. As of last night, he had four listed in various states of repair. The prrices being asked for high quality trucks in Europe have gone through the roof...EUR15,000.00 for example.

If your auto dealer friend has internet access, please ask him to contact Constantin Kiesling in Austria through either of his websites:

http://main.haflinger-4wd.com/

http://tdc.haflinger-4wd.com/

Or directly by e-mail at: c.kiesling@haflinger-4wd.com

Constantin has done an outstanding job of collecting and organizing a massive amount of information about Haflingers. I know he would enjoy learning more about the Houston-based dealer. Speedwell in Beaumont sold not only Haflingers but imports from Fiat, MG, Lotus, Austin, Land Rover and occasionally even more rare offerings. A photo of Sppedwell can be seen at:

http://tdc.haflinger-4wd.com/zubehoer/s ... height=554

It sounds like your friend works for/owns Star Motor Cars on Katy Rd. in Houston.

Hope this helps.

Take care.

Jim Molloy
Waldersee Farm
http://www.northwestmogfest.com

[pathfinder700ap]

Hello Dave,

Jim mentioned my page about the Haflinger history in USA above. I'd be really interested to learn more about your contacts in Texas. It would be another step forward to learn some things about Haflinger sales in Houston! Could you try to find out more? And maybe your man also has some pictures to share?


Kind regards,
Constantin