Panorama bus with trailer (MB O 319)

Panorama bus with trailer (MB O 319)

Crossing the Alps with luggage and comfort

When it came to picking prototypes, WIKING founder Friedrich Peltzer had the Midas touch he rightly deserves posthumous kudos for that. The credit is justly due - especially when you look at the way the Panorama bus turned out a half a century later. Day-trippers took great pleasure in mingling on the O 319 - not least because it offered them true living room comfort. Designed to cross the Alps at a slow crawl, the vehicle was also supposed to offer plenty of space for luggage and tents. To this end, it simply hitched to a trailer - a common practice back then. WIKING even furnished the O 319 with curtains at the window pillars an attractive upgrade that communicates the custom and character of the time. Coach operators almost universally ordered the luxury version of the Mercedes-Benz O 319 with its ornate bi-colour design, which was modelled after the design of the large tour buses. The combination of roof-edge and large-surface glazing turned the Mercedes-Benz O 319 into a highly sought-after minibus. Engineered with a permissible gross weight of up to 3.9 tonnes, the series was unveiled at the 1955 International Automobile Fair, IAA. Many freshly established coach operators banked their fledgling operations on the O 319 as they considered it to be ideal for the flourishing business with company outings. 1967 saw the last O 319 roll off the conveyor belt in Düsseldorf.

1955-68

Exquisite travels in the 1960s

Body and chassis with trailer coupling and cardan part dark green. Wheel rims aluminium silver. Glazing tinted. Black radiator grille with silver-painted headlamps, ornamental trim and Mercedes-Benz star. Type lettering O319 on the rear with underlining and centred Mercedes-Benz star. Tail lights imprinted red. Side flanks and roof surface imprinted Reseda green. All-around ornamental strips painted silver. Glazing imprinted with curtain appearance. Trailer with dark green lower part and Reseda green cover plus green luggage rack.