What if Audi Built a Bronco Before Ford, Using Pre-quattro Technology? It Actually Happened.

Dig deeply into the history of the four rings in North America and you’ll find the strange story of the Auto Union Bronco, a re-badging of the DKW Munga for the American market by then-owner Mercedes-Benz and their American market distributor. It may seem hard to believe, but Auto Union came to the U.S. market with a small 4×4 sport utility vehicle named Bronco years before Ford introduced a 4×4 of its own under the same name.

Prior to the post-war North American launch of the Audi brand under Volkswagen ownership, the presence of the four-rings brands (Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer) and its sister NSU was definitely hit or miss. There was a brief pre-war importation of Horch, and later a smattering of NSU and DKW product, the latter also sold here under the Auto Union brand for the most part in the 1960s. It is that later era of Auto Union cars where the DKW Munga enters our story.

The DKW Munga was first introduced in 1957 at the Frankfurt IAA. Its name was an acronym, Mehrzweck Universal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb, meaning “multi-purpose off-road car with all-wheel drive”. In that regard, it was the predecessor to the Volkswagen Iltis (also developed by Ingolstadt) that would later inspire the development of quattro all-wheel drive in luxury Audi automobiles. From 1956 to 1958 though, the spartan utilitarian Munga was primarily used by West German border police and NATO military units.

Via the Car Brochures & Adverts Album on Facebook, we’ve recently run across these American market Auto Union – DKW Bronco brochures meant to market the Munga here in the USA. Likely the Bronco name elicited a more romantic rugged vibe to Americans unlike the Munga acronym that also translates into a sort of monkey.

Check out the attached pages and you’ll find the Auto Union Bronco featured two configurations including a pickup with side-facing jump seats in the bed and a “4 Seater” with forward-facing buckets.

Inspecting the brochure, the catalogue shows that it was printed by Auto Union’s distributor, Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc. of South Bend, Indiana. That’s not surprising as Mercedes owned Auto Union at that time. It also shows that it was printed in 1960, just a few after the Munga was introduced in Europe but notably also six year before the first Ford Bronco went on sale in the United States.

Check out the full catalogue below.