THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

By the way, here is a video of Pinzgauer Canada's yard. Many of the Pinzgauers are gone (mine is the one beside the white Porsche), but you can also see all the G-Wagons they have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn7ht6S55vQ&sns=em

Too bad you cant fit those front seats into a pinz. Nice.

Andre wrote:Too bad you cant fit those front seats into a pinz. Nice.

But those seats are in Pinzes... you just have the early "no frill" model

Hey David,
I assume you have seen this one on ebay?
Looks to be a very nice restored 280GE with a 617A turbo diesel swap!!
Wonder what top speed is on it?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1983-Mer ... v4exp=true

All of my buddies have passed that one around and I've exchanged emails with the seller. I really think I'm looking for a soft top model As with my Pinzgauers, "once you go canvas, you never go back (to steel)" and one with a manual transmission.

Pretty truck though. Presumably he'll find a buyer in the region.

I will want one eventually if I can find the extra cash, but it needs to be 35+ years old in order for me to import it. Mine will also be canvas and a stickshift. And olive green.

Apparently plenty of them in service with the Danish, German and Norwegian military programs just like that.

That ebay one is so over priced it is not funny - I would rather import a real diesel with 4 doors!
When I first looked at at it I thought the $15k bid was the buy it now price:)

In my very limited time studying the G-Wagen marketplace and learning about the various models and figuring out what I wanted to focus on, even I can tell you that this guy is wildly out of the market. As we all know, what you spent on it doesn't necessarily reflect what it's worth to another guy. If it had a BIN price more in the range of $17K to $20K, it would already be sold in my opinion.

While not so common here (here excludes Beverly Hills, Grennwich, River Oaks, Kensington, Gross Point, Bethesda etc. etc.) the ex-military models are very abundant if you're willing to do the leg work to import one from Europe.

The comments about this guy's truck on http://www.bringatrailer.com were dead on when everyone took issue with the automatic transmission. (Unlike the slamfest they did on me when I was selling my 712.)

No need to import one from Europe....Pinzgauer Canada has the military ones....


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Seriously? $15k would be way too low for that G assuming the work was handled professionally. The paint and body work alone was likely $4k-5k. It might seem like the upper end of prices but you don't know what level the resto work was done to. Doing what appears to be done to that one yourself could set you back that much money, especially if you include even half your time, which would be extensive.

A SWB diesel that needs a little work would be more like $12-15k on average. Mine still needs some things done and is not at that level, but I'd not let it go for less than $14k. This blue one looks to be tastefully done and trust me, most would never believe how much work it would take to get it to that level. Looks like a solid $20K value at the very minimum to me.

A little off-topic: I know someone who spent $60K on his full G resto with a new engine and it shows. Could you sell it for that? Likely not, but many will pay close and there are a few out there that would even pay more, given that its basically a brand new diesel G which could have cheap insurance, little or no taxes, high reliability, no annoying electronics, will hold a good bit of its value, may need no inspection or smog testing, etc.. I'd much rather spend $60+K on his than one of those new $100K ones.

We've all seen stories of folks spending money on a car (or a house, or a boat or a whatever) and then they fully expect the next guy to pay for all of that "value". I am reassured by Vince's comments that when i find the ideal SWB or LWB soft top G-Wagen, it will be more or less in line with the budget(s) I've had when i was purchasing my Pinzgauers.

Quite the racket that MB of North America has if they're able to sell new ones for $100K+ don't you think?

Given what else is out there, at least the new G's are still military based 4x4's deep down and are still built in Austria. Look at what a new Lexus SUV costs (starts at $81K) Range Rover, Cadillac, BMW and so on. Those new G's are really fast, super comfortable and talk about putting your family into a rolling safety cage; the G's actual steel ladder frame isn't matched by anything short of a dump truck.

If that blue one had $25k put into it, $20k is pretty realistic based on my own experience of dealing with the G market off and on since 1999 (when I bought my first one for resale).

Looks like the sellor updated his ad.
The Buy It Now was set at $26k - that was the price I was referring to and from what I know that is steep for a non factory upgrade. But i am sure someone could pay that and feel they got a great deal.
I just don't like vehicles that have been modified by others. I am sure we have all tried to work on a vehicle that someone else built and modified - when it strays from factory then things get 'invented'. Just not my thing.
If I wanted a diesel I would prefer to buy a factory diesel - Greenliner to be exact.
Body and interior looks solid for sure!
But alas, it does not have portals so I doubt I will ever own one!

I haven't been on the forum for a while, and I happen to have sold my Pinz for a 1990 250GD.

Gotta say, I love it. It drives comfortably (and quietly!) at highway speed. It takes a little bit to get up to speed, but then again it blows the doors off the Pinz! Being a normally-aspirated 2.5 liter 5-cylinder diesel, I expected that it would be slower. I was surprised to find that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I imported mine from Holland during the Summer. There are several available online. Most of the sites are German, but parts are worldwide. Mine was in a joint Dutch/German army communications unit. It was lightly used (and pretty much rust-free), and I'm pretty sure the only dirt it saw was when they accidentally backed into the base flower garden