DKW Munga

The DKW Munga was a DKW-branded off-road vehicle built by Auto Union in Ingolstadt, Germany. Incidentally, the word „MUNGA“ comes from the German phrase "Mehrzweck UNiversal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb", which translated means, multi purpose universal cross-country car with all-wheel drive.

The production began in October 1956 and ended in December 1968. During this time 46, 750 cars were built. The 38th International Motor Show at Frankfurt in the autumn 1957 was a great success for AUTO UNION GmbH. About this time the DKW cross-country car was launched. The vehicle, which has extraordinary stamina, was not only adopted by the West German „Bundeswehr“ as a vehicle unique in its class but was also bought in large numbers for the German Border Police and various foreign military formations within NATO.

The civilian version of the DKW cross-country car was widely adopted in Western Germany for agricultural and forestry work in particular, and also became popular abroad, especially in those countries where „go anywhere“ transport was needed because of poor roads, as, for example, in large parts of South America and South- Africa. Around 2000 cars were delivered to the Dutch army, many of which were shipped to the UK in the late 1970s.

The Munga was later also available from the end of 1956 as a four-seat pan structure of steel sheet and as a six-or eight-seater platform body. The term therefore corresponds to the body variant:
 * four seat (Munga 4)
 * Pick-up (Munga 6)
 * long Pick-up (Munga 8)

The Royal Netherlands Army had intended the Munga as a replacement for the 1956 M39A1 NEKAF Jeep, but the type caused so many problems that it was removed from front line service prematurely in 1970. The M38A1 NEKAF Jeeps, that had been stored in mobilization compounds for reserve units, were re-issued to operational units  - where they remained in use until 1995.

The Munga was also built in São Paulo, Brazil by DKW-Vemag, where it was called DKW Candango. The local production lasted from 1958 to 1963 in 4wd and 2wd versions.