Saurer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adolph Saurer AG was a Swiss maker of trucks and buses, active between 1903 and 1982 and based in Arbon. Starting in 1929, Saurer used either of the brands Saurer and Berna.
Saurer was very well-known all around Europe in the years between First and Second World Wars.
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[edit] History
Saurer ran subsidiary companies in Austria (1906-1959, in the end taken over by Steyr-Daimler-Puch), France (1910-1956, taken over by Unic), the United Kingdom (1927-1931, taken over by Armstrong-Whitworth), Germany (1915-1918, taken over by MAN) and USA (1911-1918, taken over by Mack).
Saurer trucks were developped along the years into four basic ranges: A-type (1918), B-type (1926), C-type (1934), and D-type (1959). It was the B-type that established Saurer's international reputation as builder of long-lasting trucks.
In 1929 Saurer acquired its Swiss rival, Motorwagenfabrik Berna AG of Olten, but the Berna name was allowed to continue, badging the very same Saurer models.
From 1932 on, trolleybuses were a very significant segment of Saurer production. Typically Saurer, or Berna, trolleybuses featured Brown Boveri or Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Sécheron (SAAS) electric equipments and Carrosserie Hess bodies. Saurer trolleybuses operated in most of Central Europe countries, and still do it in several of them.
[edit] NAW
Declining sales in the early 1980s saw the two leading Swiss truck makers, Saurer and FBW (Franz Brozincevic & Cie Wetzikon), forming a joint organization called Nutzfahrzeuggesellschaft Arbon & Wetzikon, proceeding with motorbuses and trolleybuses production under the NAW brand, while the last Saurer-badged truck sold in the open market was delivered in 1983. Four years later, in 1987, a model 10DM supplied to the Swiss Army meant the very last Saurer truck produced in history.
In 1982 Daimler-Benz had acquired a major shareholding in NAW and soon took full control; and a in a short time dropped Saurer, Berna and FBW brands.
Eventually NAW went into liquidation in early 2003.
[edit] External links
[edit] Gallery of Saurer, Berna and NAW vehicles
 A Saurer coach in Northern Spain in 1923 |
 Saurer PostBus, c.1950 |
 c.1960 Saurer military truck |
 A Saurer trolleybus in Timişoara, 2005 |
 Saurer 4TIILM trolleybus in Gdynia, 2006 |
 Berna 2VM |
 Berna D330 |
 Berna (1951) |
 Berna (1951) |
 Carrosserie Hess bodied NAW trolleybus in Schaffhausen |
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