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Swiss guy installs a wood-burning stove in his Volvo

Swiss Volvo Woodburning Stove
Copyright REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

You gotta give it to this man: retrofitting a car with a wood-burning stove is rather unique.

But in Switzerland, a country that sometimes freezes over, it may just be a smart solution to beating the cold. The winter of 2012 happened to be extremely cold. At least one resident gave winter the cold shoulder by pimping a 1990 Volvo 240 station wagon with a wood-burning stove.

Do you care for a car-becue?

That is, the Volvo's heater was no longer working properly and needed to be repaired. A resident of Mettmenstetten near Zürich, Pascal Prokop decided one day to cut to the chase: in a MacGyver-style stunt, Prokop ripped out the passenger seat and single-handedly installed an antique stove in its place.

I never thought that a car with a chimney sticking out from the roof would be legal. But Prokop did what's right and had the modification approved by the Swiss BMV!

Copyright REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Copyright REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Copyright REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Fun fact: Prokop deliberately chose a wood-burning stove over an electric heater. The reason is that he got to keep the oven burning long after the engine had been turned off...

But he does mention in the video clip that he needs to lower the windows sometimes because of too much heat...

An ingenious mod or a silly stunt? Let us know what you think...

Dimitri Burkhard

As the founder, editor, and community manager of Newly Swissed, Dimitri owns the strategic vision. He is passionate about storytelling and is a member of Swiss Travel Communicators. Dimitri loves discovering new trends and covers architecture, design, start-ups and tourism.

Dimitri Burkhard

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