The Steyr-Puch 500 and 650
Written by Guus Docen
The Steyr-Puch company, initially known as Josef und Franz Werndl and Company was founded in 1864 as a rifle manufacturer. During the First World War the company grew rapidly and in 1918 it employed 14,000 people. The company began producing bicycles in 1894. In September 1917 Steyr recruited Hans Ledwinka, now remembered as one of the great automobile engineers of the twentieth century, to the position of chief-engineer, to lead the creation of their automobile manufacturing business. The first Steyr car appeared in 1920. The company changed it’s name to Steyr-Werke AG in 1924. In 1934, Steyr merged with Austro-Daimler-Puch to form Steyr-Daimler-Puch. After the second world war, Steyr-Daimler-Puch built diesel engined trucks, buses and tractors and also resumed passenger car production. First, Steyr assembled the Fiat 1100E , then put their own engine in a Fiat 1400 , renaming the car the "Steyr 2000". Most prominent, however, was its range of off-road cars, from the two-cylinder Haflinger and the 4x4 or 6 x 6 Pinzgauer , the Fiat Panda 4x4 (999cc) to the Mercdes-Puch G . The Haflinger was produced from 1959–1974.