Over the years I have had many older techs tell me it was really old and unique because it says "Made in W-Germany".
Anybody know what year they went to "Made in Germany "?
So it is more complicated... and what you call old or unique? ... HAZET has been founded at 1868
First Hazet Assistent tool cart is from 1954 - by 1986 half a million tool carts had already been sold.
short answer: HAZET using W-Germany in the time frame of 1979 to 1990.
long answer: Germany was divided end of World War II 1945 in West and East (short version). At the beginning of the 1970s there was a dispute between the FRG (West Germany) and the GDR (East Germany, Russian sector) regarding the use of "Made in Germany" as proof of origin and quality. In 1973, the Federal Court of Justice (West) came to the decision that not only the Federal Republic of Germany (West) was allowed to use this proof of origin. Thereafter, at the latest, many goods were labeled "Made in West Germany" in order to distance themselves from simple products from the East. In the HAZET catalog from 1979 (perhaps a little bit earlier, but not visible in 1976 catalog) one sees the inscription "W-GERMANY". German reunification was 1990.
The tool carts "Assistent 166 N" with black top deck are build from 1982 till today and are not really rare.
The first Hazet tool cart is the "Assistent 160" and was build only in 1954 with successors in 1955 "Assistent 161" and "162".
My current overview of the small & early types starting 1953 (160-166):
https://www.vw-t2-bulli.de/download/hazet/hazet-assistent-history-en.pdf
(there are bigger types of tool carts since end of the 60s as the 172 etc)
regards from (West) Berlin,
(with private 1954 Hazet Assistent 160, 1955 Hazet tool cart for Volkswagen, 1967-76 HAZET Assistent 166 TS - and bigger ones at my job)
