Classic car encounter on the way to lunch break
The city of Zurich's "Waste Disposal and Recycling" department (ERZ), of all places, has a somewhat spicy story to tell about classic cars. In 2019, its former director used an exorbitantly expensive company car to launch an investigation that revealed, for example, that ERZ had set up a museum with 16 vehicles without a mandate from the city, that there were several slush funds and that there was generally little transparency when it came to costs and awarding contracts. For example, a swimming area had been set up for employees, as well as an animal enclosure, including one with emus. The whole thing was paid for with Zurich taxpayers' money. The whole story can easily be traced via internet research and, with its multi-layered episodes, looks like something out of a bad comedy, rather than an account of actual events from a department of Switzerland's largest city administration.
With the exception of two vehicles, including an electric blasting car from the city of Zurich company EFAG, built according to the patents of electric car pioneer Johan Albert Tribelhorn - whose successor EFAG took over in the spring of 1923 - the collection was auctioned off. Recently, however, on our way to one of the lunch spots frequented by the editorial team, we came across another ERZ vintage car. Painted almost as brightly as its passengers, the ERZ workers who use it, the old service bus really stands out. The Saurer SH from 1978, a former Zurich public transport bus that was decommissioned in 1996, is still working for a living. And it has to be said: attracting attention in this way with a classic car is much better for the image than the events of the past. Because every Saurer that still drives keeps the memory of Switzerland's largest commercial vehicle manufacturer from Arbon on Lake Constance alive. The production of buses ended there with the closure of the Saurer successor company NAW (Nutzfahrzeuge Arbon Wetzikon AG) in 2003.
