Smoother Mercedes-Benz G-Class coming, but hard-core essence will remain

Imagine if the world’s most valuable company (Apple) still sold the Apple II Plus computer? With its boxy, low-resolution monochrome monitor, clunky typewriter-sized keyboard and less processing power than a modern dishwasher, it was a huge hit when launched in June 1979.

Around the same time, across the Atlantic – in Graz, Austria – the Steyr-Puch plant was rolling out the first Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen (‘cross-country vehicle’), a robust off-roader that was initially conceived as a military vehicle at the suggestion of the Shah of Iran. Unfortunately for the Shah, he was ousted by the Islamic Revolution before his order could be fulfilled.

Apple’s offerings today obviously have nothing in common with their primitive yesteryear ancestor, yet time has apparently stood still for the evergreen G-Class. Yes, there’s been some evolution over the past 44 years, but it’s largely a case of “as you were” for the boxy go-anywhere wagon.

And yet the G-Class – in particular the range-topping, V8-powered Mercedes-AMG G 63 version of the second-generation W463 launched in late 2018 – remains so popular it’s been unavailable to order in Australia for the past two years as demand exceeded supply.

The popularity of a model that has served a variety of armed forces – including in Australia – will soon spawn a baby ‘g-Class’, while a full-size battery-electric EQG variant will launch next year, and the aero lessons learned from developing it will also be applied to upcoming petrol and diesel models, the updated versions of which will launch around the same time as the EV.

“When you really go into the details of the car, we have changed things,” says Dr Emerich Schiller, head of the G-Class business unit. “Most customers won’t see it, even if they stand in front of the car, but the change in some cases had a really dramatic improvement to the aerodynamics.”

The boxy Benz is one of the very few products on sale today that has genuinely carried forward the DNA of its original forebear. You could, of course, say the same about a Rolex Oyster watch or Zippo lighter, but it’s a rarity in the automotive sphere, where constant and rapid evolution is the name of the game.

The irony is that what began life as a workhorse is now bought primarily as an expensive toy by cashed-up individuals who use it as a boulevard-cruising status symbol, rather than what it was originally intended for – conquering boulders, ploughing through muddy swamps and romping up towering sand dunes.

With its initial development costs amortised decades ago, the G-Class is a profitable cash cow for Mercedes-Benz in a peculiar twist of fate the company could never have imagined back in 1979.

Among Mercedes-Benz’s A-list customers for the G-Wagen are the likes of Sylvester Stallone, rapper Drake and a raft of top-tier footballers such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Kevin de Bruyne. There are plenty more illustrious G-Class owners… too many to list here.

Unlike Mercedes-Benz’s other models, the G-Class is built externally at the Magna-Steyr factory in Graz, Austria, where the vehicle was initially conceived back in the 1970s under the Steyr-Daimler-Puch umbrella.

Steyr-Puch already had ample experience in building rugged all-terrain vehicles like the Haflinger, Pinzgauer and Unimog, so developing and engineering the G-Wagen was well within its brief.

In addition, the nearby Schöckl Mountain provided the perfect test arena for the G-Class, and all testing and development has been conducted in this rugged mountainous terrain from the outset.

The 5.6km route up the 1445-metre mountain contains gradients of up to 60 per cent and side slopes of up to 40 per cent, hence its nickname of the ‘Green Hell of Styria’.

Precisely because it covers all off-road requirements, every new G-Class model developed has to undergo testing on the Schöckl to earn its stripes. Only after surviving 500 trips across the punishing, rocky track (at higher speeds than any customer would ever dare attempt) can the model go into series production and wear the hallowed ‘Schöckl Proved’ logo.

Whereas most automotive plants these days are staffed largely by robots, the G-Class is still almost exclusively hand-built in a factory that contains only a single robot (it applies glue to the windscreen). This helps explain why it takes 100 working hours to make a G-Class, compared with 24 to 30 hours for an S-Class limousine.

Equally remarkable is that every single G-Class that rolls out of the factory is road-tested. Lamborghini and Ferrari do the same, but the stat is more noteworthy in the case of the G as its annual build volume of 44,000 vehicles is many multiples of both the Italian brands.

Another eye-opening stat is that 92 per cent of all G-Wagens ever built are still on the road, which speaks volumes about how bullet-proof the vehicle is.

Today, we’re about to discover first-hand how durable and capable this German all-terrain SUV really is as we’ve just arrived in Graz at the G-Class Experience Centre, nestled within a 100,000 square-metre plot that was formerly an Austrian air force base.

The centre hosts G-Class experiences that anyone can sign up for, provided the ticket price – 2240 euros – is within their means.

Contrary to initial expectations of hard-core off-roading antics, our day begins on a large tarmac area in an AMG G 63, with a series of exercises that include a slalom and brake-and-swerve evasive manoeuvres on a wet skidpan.

Had we been commandeering a pre-2018 G-Class, these tasks would have been near-impossible.

Until the 2019 model year, the G-Class was as agile as an oil tanker, thanks to a rudimentary (but tough) solid axle at the front and recirculating-ball steering that seemed to provide little relationship between steering inputs and actual changes in direction.

A wholesale revamp for the second-generation model launched in late 2018 brought a brand-new ladder-frame chassis that was 40 per cent stiffer. Only the spare wheel cover, door handles and headlight washer nozzles carried over, but the big news was the introduction of independent double-wishbone front suspension and rack-and-pinion steering.

I had previously driven only the old-spec G-Class, and it’s clear the updated model sits in a different universe dynamically as it weaves through the slalom cones with surprising deftness.

It’s a head-scratching moment for me as the previous G-Wagen would have either ploughed straight through the cones or ended up in the nearby greenery if I tried to manhandle it in the same fashion.

It’s more of the same on the wet brake-and-swerve exercise as a quick application of counter-steering immediately brings the vehicle back into line after being sent sideways (either left or right) by a mechanical kick plate in the skid pan.

It’s clear the 2018 redesign has made the G-Class a much nimbler, safer and more enjoyable vehicle to steer on the asphalt, but we’re here to find out how it fares on rugged terrain.

We don’t have to wait too long because not far from the skid pan is an earth hill – dubbed ‘G Rock’ – with a handful of tracks carved in its sides.

The steepest ascent is 80 per cent (40 degrees) but, with low-range gearing engaged and the centre and rear differentials locked, the G-Class effortlessly walks up the hill. A couple of the climbs have loose surfaces but, even here, the G-Class manages to find traction and crawl up the hill without having to use too much throttle.

The final exercise of the day is a forest loop that comprises a variety of elements including a 35-degree incline, one-metre-deep wading pool, rock-crawl section and obstacles that test the G-Class’s wheel articulation capability and its ability to traverse terrain that has the vehicle leaning on its side at extreme angles.

This exercise proves the most realistic as the forest loop mimics the type of terrain one could encounter out in the real world. As with the G Rock we’d tackled a little earlier, the G-Wagen nonchalantly strolls across whatever obstacle it’s confronted with.

Ground clearance of 241mm and equally generous approach and departure angles of 30.9 and 29.9 degrees respectively provide enough leeway to ensure the nose and underbody never make hard contact with the surface beneath.

The G-Wagen’s wheel articulation is remarkable, and it doesn’t matter if one or more of its wheels are more than a metre off the ground – there’s still enough traction to keep the big wagon moving forward.

Another obstacle that surprises is the side incline. I manage to get the car leaning over at 37 degrees, and it’s just as well I’m belted in as I might otherwise have fallen out the side window.

The wading pool showcases another G-Class strength, namely its ability to cruise through water up to 700mm deep. The trick is to go in slow and steady to avoid creating a wave across the bonnet as the last thing you want is for the engine to suck in a lungful of water.

By day’s end, anyone who hasn’t previously experienced the off-road prowess of a G-Class departs with an entirely new perception of the vehicle.

The box-shaped Merc might be used primarily as a show pony by the majority of its owners these days, but there’s a lot more depth and substance to the Geländewagen than merely being a poser’s chariot.

The venerable SUV’s days are far from over as Mercedes-Benz is future-proofing the model by adding the full-electric EQG to the range next year. So, it’s safe to expect the next generation of footballers and rappers will still favour the G-Class as their vehicle of choice.

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