As rare as it gets....

The day before yesterday, Thursday 3 June, I spotted an early- to mid 90s W463 300 GE LWB in Dark Blue, with front bull bar and dreadful side decals and sporting a California number plate, 4DAT278, parked in front of the entrace to the Panorama Center, Panorama, Salonika, Greece.

Given the scarcity of older (Pre 2002), G-Wagens in the USA, this is indeed a rare sight, specially in Greece.

One can spot at least three or four Military GWagens in a normal day in Salonika, but civilian Gs are almost inexistent due to the ludicrous purchase tax on cars with over a two-litre engine. In addition, residents of the countries two biggest cities, Athens and Salonika are banned of registering in their name diesel-powered motorcars. Thus, Gs were never officially imported into Greece.

With regard to the Militery, all Gs are made in the Ex-Steyr ELBO factory sited at the Salonika Industrial Estate. Every now and then, one may spot a civilian GWagen with German numberplates, surely driven by a tourist. In many visits to Greece over a number of years, I have only spotted a Greek registered civilian G, an early soft-top 230 GE which looked as if it had been privately imported from Germany.

Cheers