Bremach
Once we decided to buy a car to make a long overland journey, the obvious question was of course: Which Car?
Our first thoughts went to the two cars we had hired on rough trips in Botswana and Oman. Landrover Defender and Toyota Landcruiser. Once we started looking into other possibilities a whole range of cars were looked at. Some we never heard of.
Even without the necessity of the car being able to fit into a container, we did not want an enormous car. Although small trucks are relatively cheap to get, the additional costs of insurance, fuel consumption, maintenance, fitting out and above all the restriction on vehicle size in many National Parks in Africa decided us to forget this option.
With a religious zeal wars are fought over whether a Landrover or Landcruiser is the better vehicle. We are really indifferent. We liked both with their advantages and disadvantages. The requirements we had in terms of weight that the vehicle had to carry and the problems people had with overloaded cars made us look at cars with possible the same footprint as these two but built stronger. In the end we decided to go for a Bremach.We had the chance to speak with people who have such a car and actually traveled for a longer period of time in difficult terrain. Also Erich Christ, who sells Bremach into Austria, Germany and Switzerland, gave a good picture of what the car does and does not do. Obviously he has an interest selling these vehicles but we had and have found only positive feedback from other buyers and users on the Net on his engagement and trustworthiness.
Not unimportant is the help you can get when you are wherever on Earth. Allrad Christ can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week. With the car you get lots of information on the parts used and preventive maintenance as well. Material that goes way beyond a normal manual.
Bremach is sold in various flavours: single cab, double cab and van with a wheel base of 2600, 3000 and 3400. (Van only 3000). We bought an Extreme 35 Van with a wheel base of 3000. Because GfK is much more vulnerable and difficult to repair if you have an accident, like backing up hard into a tree, we decided to go for the van. It has a nice flat floor and the sides are almost straight, ideal to fit in a kitchen and storeboxes. Allrad Christ has developed a few additions and changes to the standard vehicle specifically for Overland travel.
Info in German can be looked at, at Allrad-Christ, on the same site are also a lot of pictures from travels with a Bremach. Most Bremach owners are very happy to show you their car. We live in the Zurich area of Switzerland and you can contact us through this site. For others I suggest you contact Erich Christ who normally knows where the cars are that he sold and very often still does the maintenance on.
Information in English can be found at the Bremach site in Italy.