I guess you could buy a Tacoma, maybe Jeep’s new pickup, perhaps a Sprinter van, maybe even work up the courage for a well-maintained (for as long as that lasts) Westy Syncro, but me, I’ll take one of these incredible 1990s-era Puch-built G-Wagens now offered for sale.
Puch is an Austrian company that built the Mercedes G-Wagen under license for the Swiss military. In this case, a specialist Mercedes tuner called Lorinser is selling “numerous” G-Wagens all built between 1990-1996. The mileage for the badass fleet ranges between 45,000 to 220,000 km. Each comes with a 4-cylinder gas engine and a four-speed automatic transmission. All of the rigs are full-time 4x4s and come with locking read differentials.
There are hard tops and there are soft tops. Some equipped with benches running the length of the rear of the vehicle, some have metal folding tables installed.
If you like your older vehicles touched up with a modern flair, Lorinser offers them as restomods, complete with winches, LED lightbars, 16-inch alloy wheels, a refurbed body painted to any color you can dream up, and fancied leather seats.
The prices for these are probably less than you’re thinking, though still not exactly cheap.
Depending on mileage, the base models will run you from €15,200 to €19,500, when factoring in mileage and wear and tear—that’s about $17,000 to $21,700. The restomods start at about €50,000 depending on options.
You can read more about them in Lorinser’s press release, here.
Now then, importing one, well, that might be tricky, but not impossible. The price is low enough that it might be worth the headache on ensuring the rig passes smog and safety regulations.
Please stop glorifying fossil fueled vehicles. I
At this time in history, fu outside simply must be human, solar or wind powered. This vehicle is garbage, as are the others you write about and burn gas or diesel. Please stop.
People that don’t own homes and choose to live a life that’s simple and out of their vehicles. Tend to equal out the environmental impact. Do you live in a home and what kind of car do you drive? Also, do you have children ? I have a Toyota Tacoma that I use less than 8,000 miles a year I commute to work by bike and live simply. Therefore I have a lower footprint than people that drive let say a Prius. Thanks good day.
Ok calm down. Keeping a used vehicle on the road is less damaging to the environment than building a new electric vehicle. The move towards non-fossil fuel powered vehicles is great, can’t come soon enough. But suggesting everyone should throw their existing car in the trash is not only unrealistic but also irresponsible.
Please stop writing on your computer that was built using fossil fuels and consumes too much energy. Until you go around naked, sleeping on the ground (be sure not to sit on any live vegetation which might kill it) and living off wild plants (but please don’t pass too much gas as that harms the environment), please stop these types of comments. There are a lot of us who try to leave the least harmful footprint we can yet actually enjoy our time here on this spinning ball. It’s in the small day to day choices which add up to something impactful, not empty verbal chit chat that gets repeated by every troll on the internet. You know what the most environmental friendly vehicle you can buy is?….the one that has already been built and still has many miles left in it. Perhaps one of these bad boys with an electric drop in might be pretty cool and meet your standards? Keep in mind though the electricity that comes out of that socket isn’t magic, something has to generate that power,
Richard, you can’t travel from 100 mph to zero – it takes time even if we do t have to much. If you step back everything we do is connected with oil & gas, you can’t just turn off the supply and keep our current ‘global’ economy’s and the given stability immediately. It’s just human nature. I like these article’s as if gives alternatives to ‘new’ machines and in a way as simpler way of life. Oil, has etc are here for next 20 a 40 years I hope AJ and us are also here as well
Good point Richard, I hear what you’re saying, but this is the kind of news that sells … sadly.
Holier than thou doesn’t help anything. What works for you doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. We’re all doing what we can. You ride your bike or don’t use any fossil fuel. Good for you. Hard to believe you create no footprint…