Warning!
We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.
This site contains Ebay partner affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you.
Just when I thought I’ve seen everything. Mercedes-Benz G-Wagens have had a long history of use by police and military units, but this one might take the cake as one of the most unusual special builds I’ve seen on one of these. This is a 1984 280GE that was outfitted for the police tactical unit EKO Cobra of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior. Built by the Austrian company Achleitner, this G is not only fully armored and bulletproof, it also has a full 360-degree gunner seat, a roof turret and port holes out of all the pieces of two-inch thick glass. All of this while looking like a somewhat civilian G-Wagen. Whatever EKO Cobra did or planned to do with this thing, they weren’t playing around. Now somehow and someway, this literal tank of a W460 made its way to Massachusetts and is up for sale to the general public. The thing is, this 280GE has to be close useless in most situations and at this asking price, will have even the biggest G fans scratching their heads.
It’s been almost two weeks since I last featured a G-Wagen, so I figured I’d get back on the saddle and bring to you today a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 280GE up for sale in beautiful Aurora, Colorado. As you might have noticed, this W460 isn’t a stock vehicle but it’s not so crazy that you’ll look like one of those people who drive from Canada to Argentina in one trip. In fact, the only thing that is really different from every other basic W460 out there are some G55 AMG wheels wrapped in massive 35 inch tires, a set of shocks and springs to fit those massive tires, some fender flares to cover those massive tires and some torsion bars to make sure those massive tires actually get can down the road. Notice a pattern here?
Rust never sleeps. No, not the 1979 Neil Young album. I’m talking about actual rust. The thing that kills vehicles and ultimately our livelihood. In…
I have a love-hate relationship with the G-Wagen, the 4×4 from Mercedes first introduced in 1972 as a military vehicle. I think that the contemporary, blinged-out AMG versions driven by celebrities and Hollywood moguls are an abomination, a crime against motoring humanity. But on the other hand, I’m quite partial to the older, more humble trucks on which they’re based. (I clearly have a thing for boxy old SUVs: I adore vintage Range Rovers, and used to own a Jeep Cherokee XJ, though the less said about that the better.) The original trucks are honest in a way the modern behemoths are not. The G-class was never supposed to be nice to drive, luxurious or a status symbol of wealth and conspicuous consumption. It was a spartan, utilitarian vehicle intended to transport soldiers across inhospitable terrain or, when sold to the public, farmers across boggy marshes.
I love the G-Wagen. From the military-spec W460 to the Kardashian-spec W463, I love them all. The do-everything utility SUV from Mercedes-Benz that’s brash but can also be handsome in its own sort of quirky way. Designed by a team who were only allowed to use straight-edge rulers, the G has been kicking around it’s same basic shape since 1979. Everything from tiny four cylinder diesels to massive twin-turbo V12s that are more valuable than the GDP’s of some small countries have been in this thing. Unfortunately, Mercedes never graced the US with it’s G-Wagen gifts until 2002 and unlike almost every other mass produced Benz, the G seems to depreciate to a certain point in the mid-$20,000 range and never go any lower. The dreams of picking up a 2002 G500 for $9,500 will be just that — dreams — unless you are conformable buying half a G, in which the other half was involved in a large fire.  So importers have loading up the ships with handfuls European-spec Gs, spray painting the under body with three coats of black paint to hide the rust, throwing them on eBay with vague photos and descriptions then hoping the winner has a bad back and can’t crawl under it to check it out himself. Today’s featured G doesn’t seem to be that case. A wonderful 3-door 280GE located in Delaware could be a great buy for someone. As long as they don’t enjoy using drive-thrus.
