THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Hi All,

Sorry if this has been covered, a quick search didn't seem to reveal much. From forum reading it seems like vehicles that are more than 25 years old are importable, also from my reading TD pinzgauers first came out in 86? why don't we see more TDs being imported? Is it cost prohibitive or another reason? Do you think in a few more years 5-10yrs? Gas Pinz's will be obsoleted by TD pinzgauers?
Thanks in advance,

J

Rarity and cost, I'd say.
Additionally, TD components are also a lot more expensive, making it a more costly vehicle to maintain.

Any motor vehicle older than 25 years is federally exempted from U.S. DOT and U.S. EPA compliance requirements.

In addition to Peter's comments, many (if not most) are probably still in use, or else used up already.

Yes, of course, a few more will be resold from their original owner in 5 - 10 years. But you're still talking about a relatively rare truck.

Will gas Pinzs be obsolete? Like anything, they wear out. But being a specialty vehicle, and unlikely to be used as a daily driver by most owners, they are often well maintained, so many may last a long time. After all, there are still a lot of other rare OLD cars around (think Bentley, Rolls, or Ferrari). Have they become "obsolete"? I dunno.

Just my 2 cents on it.

Pinz ownership in the US was started with the super cheap prices for well maintained Swiss military surplus sales - without that there would be few in the US.

In Europe, the gas pinzies were less desirable due to the price of gasoline versus diesel. So the newer ones will continue to be in demand there since they are diesel.

The older gas pinz are simpler to work on and have more support / suppliers of used, surplus and new parts.

As Peter said, rarity.
I had posted some numbers years ago, but were lost here due to hacks and crashes. I’ll try to rehash some from memory.

The TDs had 4 different versions representing changes to the models (P80, P90, P93 and ATL’s version with the 2.5TDI)

The designations roughly represent the year in which they originated. There were less than 2000 P80s made, only a handful early before 1985, and the majority in ’87 and ’88. I’ve forgotten the number for the P90s. P93s were made up to 2000 in Austria when the factory was move to Guildford, in the UK. Production of the P93 was continued through the TDIs.

Some observations:
The TD Pinzes have ISO VINs and numbering started at 01 and continues up through when manufacturing continued in the UK. The highest VIN I have heard of prior to 2000 (Austrian manufactured) is chassis #59xx. The spring issue of Pinzgauer’ newletter announced the 1000th UK manufactured Pinzgauer. Some of the oddities of this newsletter is that it still had Armor Holdings in the letterhead , though BAE was the new owner and had announced plans to cease Pinzgauer production in the UK.
The article also says “around 26,000” Pinzgauers have been sold. If you deduct the 17000 plus gas Pinzes, that leave less than 9000 TDs and I would guess that the total number at less than 7500, and think that is high also.

Another point to mention is that majority of the TDs are RHD. The TDs though made in Austria, ATL had bought the rights to Pinzgauer around 1994, hence why so many were in the British military and in “Commonwealth” countries, along with countries that has strong UK ties.

It has been my long term contention that if ATL hadn’t bought the licensing rights to Pinzgauer ( and gotten British contracts), Pinzgauer would have disappeared long before the turn of the century.

TD Pinzgauers are slowly trickling out of some countire but due to very low production numbers you are not going to see them in the quantities of the gas Pinzgauers or the price. Only model we have seen in any kind of numbers (maybe 2 or 3) at a single auction is the 718AMB and they still command a premium, even ones with engine head problems. Even the gas Pinzgauers are limited in availability compared to the days of the Swiss auctions with hundreds of trucks at a single auction. A 718AMB non-runner would land in the US at around $24K-$26K even with a favorable exchange rate. Slim pickings and don't expect much to change. The only reason prices have calmed down a little is due to sanctions on a certain country and negatively impacting their currency exchange rates/economy.

Cheers,

Scott

Hi All,

Thanks for the very informative posts, I guess I wasn't aware there were so many gas pinz's built compared to diesel. It makes sense to me now why you don't see that many Diesel Pinz's in the states!

J