In 2013, I posted the brochure below with note explaining that there wasn’t much known about these mini jeep-looking vehicles. Yesterday, Peter Furrer sent me an email yesterday explaining that he was the developer of the Piccolino and that his five prototypes and everything else related to them are for sale. He’ll only sell them as a package. His price is $100,000. If he can’t sell them by the fall, he plans on auctioning them.
Peter grew up in Switzerland. During his time in the Swiss Army in the 1950s, there were thousands of them. After completing his one year service, in 1958 Peter joined a crew of a filming expedition-team that went from Sao Paulo to the Amazon with 5 Jeeps and trailers. It took them 9 month to film the landscapes, animals and indios, people who had never seen white men before. Later, Peter became a commercial flight captain and did well as real estate broker.
In 1986, Japanese cars became very popular in Switzerland. There smaller size made navigating Switzerland’s narrow street easier. About then Peter’s love of Jeeps returned, but then he had a brainstorm. He decided to make half sized jeep-like vehicles to make parking frontside to sidewalks possible. Engineers in Paris, Switzerland and Italy designed the Piccolino to his specifications. In 1987, he showed them at the Geneva car-show, creating great interest with hundreds of reservations and dozens of dealer applications.
All he needed was the money to start mass production. In his search for money, a Thai businessman paid the airfreight to bring the 5 Piccolinos to the Bangkok car show. Again hundreds wanted to buy, but this time a military coup with tanks in the streets ended the effort and relations.
A Miami boat-show with 5 Piccolinos ended with TV coverage and in golf courses, as this would have been the only golf cart with street license. He feels they would have been great for golf-comunities.
In Detroit, he made it to the first floor of Lee Iacoca CEO building, but Lee would not see him. Later, his lawyers warned him never to call my Piccolino a Jeep!
Peter is now 81 and feels it is time to give up on his dream cars that he has cherished now for 20 years. He Will only sell them all together. He also hopes someone will donate a Piccolino to me, a very generous offer that I would readily accept, but certainly not necessary. If anyone has interest in this, feel free to privately email at d@ewillys.com and I’ll put you in touch with Peter.
In 1950, Olympic skating star Sonja Henie’s traveling ice show was practicing at Paramount Iceland, and she saw the Model A in action. She had to have one and asked Frank if he could build one in time for an upcoming Chicago performance. The deadline was tough, but Frank worked day and night, then loaded all of the resurfacer parts into a U-Haul® trailer. He towed the trailer to Chicago behind the Jeep he would install the parts on and assembled the Model B there.
