The camper van is one of the most accessible ways to go RVing. Vans fit in parking spaces, don’t require you to tow a trailer, can be used as utility vehicles, and can even be a daily driver. The world of camper vans is vast, from converted Ford E-Series vans to fancy Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans. If you’re looking for something a bit weird, this 1977 Mercedes-Benz 206D might hit the spot. This restored gorgeous green cutie will probably be the slowest thing on the road, but between the plaid interior, the diesel engine, and the manual transaxle, you might not even care.
I’ve been finding myself rather fascinated with the vehicles people are importing that aren’t the typical enthusiast cars from Japan or Europe. There’s nothing wrong with these cars; I even happily owned a Honda Beat once, but I love seeing all of the strange vehicles America never got. You have to put some real effort into importing a car into America, too, so it’s fascinating to see what cars people were willing to invest the time and money to bring here.
This 1977 Mercedes-Benz 206D has lived in America for a while, and was recently the recipient of a restoration. Despite its compact size, it has just about everything you need for a fun weekend from home. Well, so long as speed isn’t one of your requirements, anyway. The van is plenty weird, too, starting with the fact that it’s technically not even a Mercedes-Benz.
A Maker Of Everything On Wheels
The story of the Mercedes-Benz 206D starts with another van, the Hanomag-Henschel F20. The history of the defunct Hanover, Germany, automaker Hanomag is a fascinating one. Like the General Motors of the 20th century, Hanomag had its hands in so many industries. I have written about Hanomag previously:
Hanomag originally started off in 1835 as Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Georg Egestorff. Founder Georg Egestorff opened an iron foundry to build steam engines, boilers, and industrial equipment. This eventually evolved into building farm machinery and in 1846, steam locomotives.
In 1912, as farming news site Lancaster Farming notes, the company began making the Hanomag tractor. Hanomag tractors reportedly rose in popularity in 1928 when the company switched from gas engines to four stroke diesels. The site writes that Hanomags are among some of the first diesel tractors. Lancaster Farming goes on to say that back in the early 1950s, Hanomag was the number one tractor manufacturer in Europe.
Hanomag got into car manufacturing in 1924 with the 2/10, and the business would turn a profit on cars beginning in 1928. According to the Lane Motor Museum, by 1931, Hanomag had a 25 percent share of the small-car market in Germany, followed by DKW at 19 percent, and BMW at 17 percent.
Hanomag’s last car came in 1939. As the Lane Motor Museum says, the car never got a proper name, so people just call it the “1.3-Liter.” It was ahead of its time with a unibody construction and aerodynamic profile. Allegedly, the Volvo engineers examined the 1.3-liter while designing the PV 444. Hanomag would bow out of car production after building about 100,000 vehicles.
While Hanomag stopped building cars, it would continue to build tractors, trucks, trailers, construction equipment, and vans. Hanomag is perhaps most recognizable to Americans for its production of the Wehrmacht Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track.
A Platform Of Multiple Names
In 1963, another German manufacturer, the Tempo-Werke division of Vidal & Sohn, launched the Matador E van and truck. This was an evolution of the old VW-powered Matador work vehicles that Tempo had been building since the late 1940s. The Matador E was notable for its body-on-frame design, torsion bar suspension, and 1.6-liter 60 HP BMC B Series four-cylinder engine, which drove the front wheels. A 1.8-liter 50 HP Hanomag D301 four-cylinder diesel was also available.
In 1964, conglomerate Rhine Steel purchased Hanomag. Then, a year later, Hanomag, which had held a 50 percent stake in Tempo since 1955, purchased the rest of Tempo. The Matador E was facelifted in 1967, two years before Rhine Steel merged Hanomag with Henschel, becoming Hanomag-Henschel. That year was also when Hanomag sold its tractor division to Massey Ferguson, and its truck division to Daimler-Benz. Daimler would take full control of Hanomag a year later. By that point, the Matador E had been renamed the Hanomag-Henschel F20, and, under Daimler ownership, the van would get another name and another refresh.
Now, the van was called the Mercedes-Benz 206D, and it had a Mercedes front fascia and Mercedes powertrains. Some automotive historians point to the 206D, which was sold from 1970 to 1977, as one of the predecessors to the Sprinter van.
That brings us to the 1977 Mercedes-Benz 206D for sale here today, which escaped a life of hard work for recreation.
This 1977 Mercedes-Benz 206D
From what I can tell, the 206D was a popular platform for camper van conversions. German RV companies turned these into campers, and individuals did as well. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out if this camper conversion was done by a company or a private owner. I have come up empty, but I am able to tell other parts of the van’s story.
The van’s current seller says that it was imported to the United States by a previous owner and was acquired by its most recent owner in 2018. This owner performed a restoration on the van, which included dent removal, new paint, engine tuning, a new water pump, a rebuilt brake booster, serviced brake cylinders, and other odds and ends. The job appears to be holding up well, and the van is resplendent in its glossy green and white paint job.
What I like about this 206D is that it’s a compact size. It stands about 7.5 feet tall and about 14.7 feet long. While that might be a touch too tall for a standard garage, it’ll fit in a parking space just fine!
The 206D retains the aforementioned ladder frame and front-engine, front-drive design. Under the doghouse sits a 2.2-liter 60 HP OM615 inline-four diesel, an engine that also went into the Mercedes-Benz 220D. That’s coupled to a four-speed manual transaxle. The OM615 is known for being a pretty sturdy engine and is the direct predecessor to the iconic OM617 diesel.
The last time this van appeared for sale was in August on Bring a Trailer. Here’s what that listing said about the van’s wonderful interior:
The cockpit’s bucket seats are upholstered in plaid cloth and are accompanied by three-point seat belts, woodgrain door-panel trim, a heater, and a defroster.
The rear compartment is outfitted with storage cabinets, two inward-facing rear benches, privacy curtains, a stowable table, a fire extinguisher, and a residential-style power outlet. The rear heater and Norcold refrigerator have not been tested by the seller, and the rear speakers are not connected.
Instrumentation ahead of the two-spoke steering wheel consists of a 130-km/h speedometer and gauges for coolant temperature and fuel level. The six-digit odometer shows 80k kilometers (~50k miles), approximately 100 of which were added under current ownership. The horn is non-operational.
This van does have a U.S. electrical system with a shore power connection. However, it’s unknown if the shore power connection works. That Norcold refrigerator runs on 12 volt power. Not noted by the Bring a Trailer Listing or in the current listing, but spotted in my inspection is a gas-fired furnace. So, this rig is missing luxuries like an air conditioner and a stove, but that’s nothing that cannot be easily rectified with portable units. Otherwise, what else do you need for a great night at a state park?
There are, of course, some catches. The biggest catch is the price. The van failed to sell for $6,900 on Bring a Trailer only a few months ago. Now it’s for sale for $28,995. These vans are extraordinarily rare in America, and I don’t have any comps here, but that is a huge gulf between the final bid and how much the seller wants.
The selling dealership, Thiel Truck Sales of Pleasant Valley, Iowa, claims that the top speed is about 55 mph to 57 mph. That’s going to be far too slow for many Interstates, and barely fast enough for many state highways. This van is best for side roads and local camping trips. I suppose you could drive it across America if you had unlimited time. Amusingly, this also means that the van does not have a 60 mph acceleration time.
If you can somehow live with the absolutely glacial speed of this thing, and glaciers might actually be quicker, it seems like you’ll be getting quite the cute van. This 206D is unlike anything that you can buy in America, and I’d like to imagine that it has many years of fun trips left in it. Just make sure you never try passing anything faster than a bicycle.
Topshot graphic image: Bring a Trailer Listing
