Mercedes-Benz Professional G-Wagen now on sale

Mercedes-Benz G-Class buyers who reckon the standard wagon is a bit soft will be pleased to hear the news that there's now a 'Professional' variant available, priced at $109,900.

The bare-bones wagon takes the Professional range in Australia to two, joining the cab chassis variant that went on sale here in 2016.

Essentially a beefed up military-spec Geländerwagen for civvies, the G-Class Professional is based on the C 300 CDI wagon, but with four seats only, allowing easy on-board access to the luggage compartment. Powered by the same 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6, the Professional wagon develops 135kW and 400Nm. The five-speed automatic drives through a permanent four-wheel drive system featuring three diff locks as standard. Mercedes-Benz claims the G 300 wagon in this specification will tow a braked payload of 3140kg and the standard stability control system can be disabled for to plug on through low traction sections of track.

The Baumeister code for this vehicle is 461 – in line with military G-Class, rather than 463 for the civilian G-Class that completed the gruelling Canning Stock Route six years ago.

Features fitted as standard in the G 300 CDI Professional wagon include fog lights, bull bar, snorkel and 16-inch alloy wheels in black. The Professional model also comes with a water drain plug in the floor, a 96-litre fuel tank, two 12-volt batteries, tyre pressure loss warning system, dirty air filter warning, brake pad wear indicator for the front axle brake, headlight and indicator stone guards, and radiator and oil sump shields.

Mercedes-Benz is offering buyers options and packages such as a walk-on bonnet ($1900), winch preparation package ($1700 for the wagon, $1500 for the cab chassis), heated seats ($900), tinted rear windows ($700) and a wire mesh partition behind the rear seats ($1200). Additionally, buyers can order the cab chassis with a body building enhancement package ($2500) or electrical enhancement package ($4900). The wagon can be specified with the 'Edition PUR' package for $9900. This comprises the following features: walk-on bonnet, electric mirrors, roof rack, heat-insulated tinted glass behind the B-pillar, side running boards, towbar, headlight cleaning system, heated leather seats and a radio/CD player.

Australia is the only market in the world where the G-Class Professional range is sold to private buyers – as opposed to armed forces. To draw attention to the introduction of the G-Class Professional wagon, Mercedes-Benz Australia has arranged with South African-born explorer Mike Horn to run a leg of his 'Pole2Pole' expedition from Birdsville through the Simpson Desert in a convoy of G-Wagens.

For the eight-day drive across the desert Horn took with him three wagons and two cab-chassis models. Accompanying the Professional vehicles were two G 500 wagons in left-hand drive – supporting Horn not only for the Aussie leg, but right throughout his Pole2Pole circumnavigation of the globe from north to south.

Horn expects the expedition to take two years, all up. He set out from Monaco in May last year and has so far worked his way through Africa and across Antarctica after sailing there on a Mercedes-Benz-powered ice-breaking yacht. In Antarctica he rose to the challenge of being the first person to cross the widest part of the continent via the South Pole, unaided.

From Antarctica he sailed to Dunedin and explored the south island of New Zealand around the Queenstown region before sailing to Sydney for the Australian leg.

“The Simpson Desert is something I’ve always wanted to do," Horn was quoted as saying in a press release. "It is even more beautiful than I ever imagined, the variety of colours and terrain on each day and the stars at night are just some of the sights I will never forget.”

Horn leaves Australia this month to tackle Papua-New Guinea and continue north through South-East Asia and Russia. He plans to reach Monaco by the middle of next year and other than another solo passage across the North Pole and the occasional voyage, he will
be transported the entire distance by G-Class.

“The G-Class is the perfect tool to make my adventure a bit more human," he says. "It enables me to go by road to certain destinations that I used to fly to. And that makes my exploration a bit more meaningful and rich.

“Now I can spend time with the local people, I can eat their food and try to communicate with them. I used to fly over them, now I can share with them.

“A journalist once asked me, ‘do you need the heated seats and the air-conditioning’? I said it’s not so much that I need it, I can live without it, but I think I deserve it. This is definitely the car that I would buy.”

Horn has embarked on amazing journeys over a 20-year period, starting with the Amazon in 1997. That expedition took him across South American from the Pacific to the Atlantic along the Amazon River. Two years later he circled the world at the equator, without motorised transport. In 2002 he travelled around the Arctic Circle on foot and by means of boat, Kayak and ski kite.

Four years later during the arctic winter he slogged his way to the North Pole and back, accompanied by another explorer, Borge Ousland. From the following year right through to 2014 he made it his personal challenge to climb mountains around the world, up to 8000m without oxygen. In 2015 he led a G-Wagen convoy from his homeland of Switzerland to Pakistan, crossing 13 countries in total. The 51-year old explorer's current exploits are documented on his website.