Joe Goacher would rather ride his motorcycle, but on most days, he drives a G-Wagon and scribbles in a notebook he carries with him.
“I always have my notebook with me, taking notes, looking for a rattle or if it pulls to the right a little bit,” he says with a laugh.
That kind of perfectionism has served him well. G-Wagon is slang for Mercedes-Benz’s G-Class, the company’s top-end luxury four-wheel-drive SUV. The G stands for Geländewagen, the German word for terrain vehicle.
G-Wagons are hand built, says Goacher, a Loveland resident, and vintage G-Wagons have a strong following for collectors. Goacher has built his evolving business, Alliance Motorworks, around the niche. It’s now one of the top G-Wagon rebuilders in the country.
Goacher got his start after a few large rebuilds, when word spread to other G-Wagon owners. Suddenly he and his team were regularly fielding calls from G-Wagon enthusiasts, which helped him realize that while some luxury brands, such as Porsche, had shops dedicated to those vehicles, the G-Wagon niche was his for the taking.
“We decided, ‘Let’s go all in on this,’” he says.
The beginning
Goacher was looking to reinvent his career and move away from land development during the 2008 economic recession. An off-road enthusiast and car lover, he decided to become a mechanic. In 2009, he opened Alliance Auto Care, a small, two-bay shop in downtown Loveland. Even then, he knew that he wanted to focus on European cars.
“If you are going to spend eight hours working on a car, I would rather it be a Porsche and not a Pontiac,” he says.
The business grew, and in 2017, Goacher moved to a larger shop just south of downtown. It was a full-service mechanic shop for high-end European cars. In 2019, he began to see an influx of G-Wagons come through the door.
By 2024, Goacher says he “finally got serious” about G-Wagons and created a YouTube channel called Nothing But G’s.
“The channel took off,” he says. “[The followers are] people actively looking to purchase…so we focused the channel on education and transparency, and the methodology really worked for us.”
Project Manager Connor Hogan likens the YouTube channel to old “Discovery Channel motorsport shows.”
“The YouTube world is exciting because it builds trust with customers you haven’t even met yet,” he says. “We are reaching markets that we wouldn’t have had access to.”
Because of the channel, the shop went from receiving a couple of G-Wagons shipped to them each month for rebuilds to receiving vehicles every week from all over the U.S.
Alliance Motorworks. Photo by Battlecreek Media
A luxury niche
Alliance now does custom vehicle restoration for collectors that can reach into the six figures. They have clients across the country, many of whom are well-known names, including a Formula 1 driver and a couple of well-known YouTubers.
“It is a different sphere to be in,” Goacher says, “but these people are generally wonderful to work with.”
The projects can involve exterior and interior refinishing, or they might be classic rebuilds that stick to the original specifications of a vehicle. They can even undergo complete performance upgrades and custom fabrications. Alliance also sources and restores or rebuilds classic G-Wagons for resale.
As the number of G-Wagon rebuilds grew, they began to branch into other luxury all-terrain vehicles, specifically Land Rover Defenders and INEOS Grenadiers. They created similar YouTube channels for each of those brands, with a focus on straightforward education.
The concept has been so successful that Alliance Auto Care recently morphed into Alliance Motorworks, and they have had to “turn off” their automotive repair side for all makes and models to focus solely on rebuilds and customizations of the luxury brands.
“We did that out of necessity,” Goacher says. “We just can’t service both out of the same facility.”
They have a second shop nearby that completes the large (think six-figure) rebuilds, while smaller projects are done out of their shop at 827 S. Lincoln Ave. in Loveland.
“This building [827 S. Lincoln Ave.] is Metallica; that building is Mozart,” Goacher says, referring to the extensive, months-long rebuilds that take place in the second shop.
They also do sales, consignment and brokering, holding inventory on a few G-Wagons and other all-terrain vehicles they have sourced and rebuilt for resale.
“Specializing the way we have is a little more profitable [than a standard auto repair shop] and allows us to be laser focused and turn out a better product,” Goacher says.
He expects the next five years to bring enough growth to create the need for a single location with a showroom. He envisions a place where collectors can store their vehicles and Alliance can showcase their rebuilds.
“We want to create a safe haven for collectors and enthusiasts that has its roots in service and repair,” Hogan says.
Goacher also expects to broaden his focus to encompass additional luxury brands, such as Bentley, Lamborghini and McLaren. In the meantime, he has a full-time videographer who shoots and produces a couple of videos each week to keep the YouTube channels fresh.
His team recently headed to Moab for a little work—shooting video content—and a little pleasure.
“I am a gearhead…I love it and I love off-roading,” he says. “We are enthusiastic about this. We are not doing this just to punch a clock.”
