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Garant: an East German class N1 truck from 1959 with a 4,058 cm³ four-cylinder engine, a 3,770 mm wheelbase, six wheels and a 3,420 kg gross weight
The register entry lists Veb as the registration holder - the abbreviation stood for Volkseigener Betrieb in East Germany, the legal form of state-owned combine enterprises, and was not a brand name in its own right. Under that framework, the Garant line was built at one of the state-owned commercial vehicle plants grouped in the IFA combine, which produced light and medium trucks for the East German market.
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The four-cylinder engine displaces 4,058 cm³, considerably more than Western European vans of comparable payload. At 5,950 mm long, on a 3,770 mm wheelbase and with six wheels - meaning twin tyres on the rear axle - this is a vehicle built with a rugged specification for goods transport. Kerb weight of 2,451 kg leaves close to 1,000 kg of payload against the 3,420 kg gross weight.
Under today's EU system, the Garant's gross weight under 3.5 t would place it in class N1, even though that classification did not yet exist when the vehicle was built. Twin rear wheels were common on the rugged commercial vehicles of East German production and served to spread the load on the poor rural roads of the era's economic traffic.
When buying a Garant from this period, the condition of the cab and the frame matters most, as rust on load-bearing parts is common after decades of use. Spare parts for the four-cylinder engine and the braking system are today mainly available through specialist historic vehicle networks, which should be checked before purchase.
Sources: SpecCodex-Register: Kennwerte des Modells GARANT
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