Cars with history: Jeep Comando

While in 1968 the Jeepster Commando was still being manufactured in the USA with fairly respectable sales, that same year the model adapted to Spanish tastes arrived. At the Barcelona Motor Show in spring 1968, the first units of the Spanish Comando, still at prototype stage, were presented. It was to be marketed under license by Viasa (Vehículos Industriales y Agrícolas Sociedad Anónima) and built by CAF S.A. (Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A.) in Zaragoza.

Initially the Comando was available in three body styles: open-top, with a canvas roof, or with a hard steel roof, and with two engine options, the Barreiros C-65 diesel or the Hurricane F-4 petrol engine, while only two colours were offered, cream and light blue. What could be called the first generation of one of Spain’s first genuine off-road vehicles remained almost unchanged until 1973, with only new colours introduced from time to time.

In 1974 CAF S.A. stopped manufacturing the Comando, and production passed to Motor Ibérica, which renamed the existing Comando models (Jeep-Ebro and Jeep-Avia). The first change was the replacement of the Barreiros engines with the Perkins 4-108. However, once Motor Ibérica took over production of the Comando, the features that could be called “luxury trim” disappeared, giving way to a much more spartan vehicle, although it did incorporate heating and other details, as well as more load space by relocating the spare wheel under the fuel tank. The Comando was aimed more at industrial and rural use than at being a recreational vehicle.

Around the mid-1970s, and at the request of the international American Motors network, a series of units was produced in Zaragoza for export to markets as dissimilar as Venezuela and South Africa. These units had the specifications of the American models and incorporated the petrol V-6 Dauntless engine.

By 1978 the first of the only two special variants of the Comando began to reach the market. The first was the HD, which incorporated a more powerful engine (the Perkins 4-165), and the HDI, which appeared in 1979 on the mechanical base of the HD, although with a redesigned rear body section to provide greater load capacity, by raising the roof.

The end came when Nissan bought Motor Ibérica, and the Japanese introduced the Nissan Patrol to the Spanish market, a heavyweight among off-road vehicles in our country. It was clear that the Comando would not be able to withstand the commercial onslaught of the Patrol for much longer, so the last unit was built in 1983.

Source | Wikipedia, Club Jeep Comando España