Through the Roof!

Barrett Jackson featured three G's and all went for crazy money. Are people finally starting to see the real value in these iconic trucks? I previewed the offerings a few weeks back and featured one stand out example but did not take a deep dive into the other two.

For perspective, you can usually find a clean 80's model G for under $20,000 and a late model AMG version for about $70,000 but what I saw at auction was a bit shocking. Join me for a quick summary and final auction results for all three. 

Let's begin with a wonderfully restored and presented 1987 Wolf. I spoke with the seller and profiled the truck in this blog post just prior to the sale. It seems this car was restored by a professional group out of Germany and I can tell you the attention to detail was exceptional. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see this truck bring $60,500 at auction. Based on these results, expect to see me document the restoration of my Puch-G cabriolet.

Sold on the final day was called a 1996 SWB Europa. I took a good look at this truck and was not impressed. The interior looked worn, the paint job was spotty at best and when I looked under the hood liner, there was a lot of surface rust. Whoever did the bodywork did a poor job and lacked attention to detail.

I was interested so I took the VIN and did some searching and found a forum post that included an entry by someone claiming to be the previous owner. He said the car was purchased from Mastodon for around 25K with a rebuilt engine (300 block and 350 head). I also found the truck offered by CNC Motors for $59K.

I did not attend the final day but was shocked to see this car went for $41,800 at auction. Lesson: Do your research before bidding. 

Finally, let's go crazy. The AMG Mercedes G63 6x6 is a rare bird indeed. It is thought that about 100 were made between 2014 and 2015 and as with any low mile limited edition car they tend to bring a LOT at auction. To illustrate the high expectations this was one of the few lots offered with a reserve. 

The only thing that kept me from purchasing this car was the color. Everyone knows that only the UN should be allowed to have white G-Wagons. 

Even without me bidding, the 2014 example with less than 1000 miles at Barrett-Jackson 2019 broke the one million dollar mark by going for $1,210,000! The crazy thing is, these are titled with a special show title in the US limiting them to only 2500 miles per year. Can you imagine purchasing a truck for over a million and turning it into a trailer queen?

I'm convinced now more than ever those of us with well maintained G's in the states should invest in making them right and auctioning them off!