Cohort Pic(k) Of The Day: ’55-’67 Mercedes-Benz L319 – Do Old German Vans Oversee The Canadian Sky?

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– Posted on July 26, 2023

William Oliver recently posted this old Mercedes van at the Cohort, perched on its current position in the sky of Ontario. Clues? The image quality was good enough for ‘Ontario’ to be clearly read on its front plate, and I’ll admit that’s as far as my sleuthing went.

CC readers won’t be surprised that these have been previously covered. Rather than try to Chat-GPT my way around the L319’s stats; I’ll let Paul’s text fill us in:

The graceful L319 appeared in 1955, and was decidedly one big step above the popular VW Transporter in terms of both size and load capacity. It was built as cargo vans, pickups and passenger buses–and essentially was the very first of the Sprinter-class vans that now dominate the market in Europe and in the U.S. They were mighty pokey, though: the diesel version used the 43 hp engine from the original 180D; later, the 65 hp gasoline 1.9 four from the 190 also became available. Top speed with the diesel? 49 mph!

I take this was the cargo van version. Which my careful sleuthing eye identifies by its lack of windows (Such deduction powers!) As Paul’s original post states, these were very leisurely transport. But did it matter? Have you seen shots of the Alps and Innsbruck? I wouldn’t have been in a rush to get anywhere, even in a cargo van.

 

Further reading:

Curbside Classic: Mercedes-Benz 207D (T1) And Other Vintage MBZ Vans