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Take a look around the collector car market and you’ll see 1970s to 1990s SUVs are very hot right now. Either bone stock or $300,000 restomods, people want them. The typical suspects are always the most in demand like Land Cruisers, Broncos, and Defenders, but now it seems like people are digging up G-Wagens from across the globe to dump off on Americans flush with cash. Even better, they are using cheap labor and materials from countries in Europe that are economically challenged then selling them under the guise of “restored,” which is a term that has lost all meaning whatsoever given how often it is used under false pretense. Case in point, today’s 1984 Mercedes-Benz 240GD in Poland.
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.
Now that it is the middle of August and it could snow next week for all we know, I have to start thinking about my winter vehicle situation. My trusty Land Rover Discovery 1 that I’ve had for the past 12 years probably won’t see the flakes fly because I think some coolant is leaking into the cylinders and that is a problem. Because a Discovery with 180,000 miles that has been in Pennsylvania for the past 12 years is worth roughly the price of a used lawnmower, which I’m sure people on Craigslist will offer up for trade, it isn’t worth pulling the heads and fixing. This of course has led me to shopping for G-Wagens. The sensible decision would be to find a decent Land Cruiser/Lexus LX and never lose a dime on it while being 100% reliable, but the crazy person in me says go find a G-Wagen because that is what I really want at the end of the day.
During my search for the perfect G, I came across this wild example up for sale in Canada. You might notice it is quite a bit longer and has a few more seats. This W460 300GD was cut up and lengthened a massive 32 inches. This added room for another row of seats while still keeping a healthy amount of space in the rear. The fit and finish look great along with basically everything else on this G. But I have to ask, why?
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…
