Sound familiar??

[Alan S]

How common are these??

JEEP MAHINDRA 1990, 69,000klms, soft top, reg 5/03, Peugeot diesel, exc cond, very reliable and unique 4WD, rwc $6,000. Phone 0413 994 329.
Publication Date: 8/02/03

Alan S cheers!

 

[davemcbean]

A few hundred of these were imported from India to Austrlia by John Hughes in Perth, over a 3 or 4 year period during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They are excellent off road due to the 53:1 low low ratio, but are shocking to drive on road (as you would expect from a 1940s design of 4WD), and so sales were not very successful here. I wouldn't pay $6000 for one, that's for sure.

Mahindra & Mahindra in India, have been making licensed copies of the Jeep CJ-3B since the 1950s and have exported quite a few examples to the UK over the past ten years.

They have been making licensed copies of Peugeot Diesel engines for about the past 20 years, in addition to a copy of the Willys overhead inlet, side valve exhaust petrol engine.

They make other versions of the traditional Jeep also. Many use the 2.1 XD90 diesel as used in some 504s in Europe, but in the past ten years they've alos started making the XD3 2.5 litre disel as used in later 505s. Some of them also use the BA10 5 speed that was used in 505s (and Jeep Cherokees in North America).

The first Jeep copy to use a Peugeot Diesel was the Hotchkiss Jeep made in France. These were exact copies of the original WW2 Jeep, used by the French army until the early 1980s. They offered the option of a Peugeot diesel for a short while in the 1960s but didn't make very many. Kits for converting petrol engined Jeeps to Peugeot engines were also available in France.

Dave

<small>[ 10 February 2003, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: davemcbean ]</small>