I had a Peugeot 407 for five years. My Dad had the estate version and the previous model before that. All did over 100,000 miles without too much mishap. The wiring was too thin on both the 407’s resulting in poor earths and faults on the dash with the inevitable bleeping but this may not have been fitted to an army work vehicle.
What I do know about the G Wagen is the chassis rots on the tubular out-riggers so look closely at these. Mechanically I’d hazzard that they would have been driven by squaddies and if you take that into consideration you may get a bargain or you may not. As a fun car I’d not say no but don’t let heart rule head.
Check the 4wd. The Mercedes had diff locks F & R so check these. No good going on some grass and no 4wd eh!
Backlash in driveshafts is another tell tale of hard life. LR’s had a simple fix in new rear half-shafts and drive stars plus gaskets as a kit thus stopping all that transmission clatter.
A Mercedes kit won’t be as cheap if there is clatter but I think spares are on the whole available but pricey.
In the past as a spectator at AWDC events G Wagens were fantastic off-road but some drivers tended to go into a sticky place with diff-locks engaged….. the result was a vehicle which was very difficult to recover with a LR unless one had some very long ropes! Even then a rope snatch was quite a dangerous operation.
There you go
my pennys worth.
S