Car New | Mercedes G550 Earns Our 21-Gun Salute
I’m an easy mark for artifacts of the late Seventies and early Eighties: Music from The Clash to Depeche Mode; directors like Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg at the top of their games; and of course the serially underrated Porsche 911 SC.
Maybe that’s why I can’t resist the Mercedes G550. This antediluvian 4×4 was the Seventies suggestion of the Shah of Iran, a big Mercedes shareholder who put in an order for 20,000 military-grade trucks. The Shah was overthrown and exiled by the Islamic revolution before he could take delivery, but the Geländewagen, or G-Wagen, lived on. Since 1979, the civilian version has been largely hand-built in Graz, Austria, and the G-Class (as it’s been renamed) has performed military duty for Austria and more than 60 other nations. Mercedes has pledged to produce the G-Class as a NATO support vehicle through 2025.
So while the G-Class is a proud perennial, it can also seem a washed-up joke, the Gallagher of SUV’s. Its recirculating-ball steering is a technology that dates to the Twenties, meaning the 1920’s. On normal pavement, the best approach to the G-Class is to pretend you’re driving an old John Deere, with a jar of moonshine in your lap that you don’t want to spill. This tippy-feeling beast weighs 5,700 pounds, and rear-seat legroom is surprisingly cramped. The back end shuffles over bumps, and the jittery steering demands constant oversight. Yet as former off-roaders like the Toyota 4Runner have gone soft or disappeared entirely, the G-Class has stuck to its guns, formed from solid steel, naturally.
Did I mention that I still love the G-Class? Or that, if I were wealthy, I would buy one as my go-to for skiing and outdoor adventure? Driving the G-Glass, rolling up to a Manhattan restaurant, imagining driving it through the restaurant—this Mercedes still puts a smile on my face like few new vehicles.
The irrepressible charm of its boxy utilitarian design, which turns any driver into the Rambo of his or her subdivision, helps explain why followers will happily shell out $123,325 to start for the new G550 — or even $220,000 for the AMG G65 version with its twin-turbo V-12. For Mercedes, that AMG G65 is the sucker play, a way to soak up profits and soak buyers who have more money than sense. More power to them, in this case, 621 utterly superfluous horsepower. A 563-horsepower AMG G63 starts from $140,000, a more-reasonable $17,000 upcharge from the G550. And for the ultimate in Dubai dick-in-a-box, there’s the upcoming 99 copies of the lunatic, perhaps-$500,000 Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landaulet, whose nearly two-foot wheelbase stretch makes room for S-Class-style rear seats under a motorized fabric top. Even the G550, the new starter model, brings an over-capable engine for a truck that’s designed more for crawling over obstacles in low-range 4WD: The biturbo 4.0-liter V-8 from the AMG GT sports car supplies 416 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque. Imagine sitting atop a brick, then blasting said brick from a cannon, and you’ll have an idea of what it feels like to careen from 0-60 mph in 5.8 seconds in the G550.
The G-man’s body has barely changed over four decades, from its near-vertical windshield and side glass to the spare tire hung from a side-hinged tailgate; there’s only so much you can do with a box. (My tester’s brick-red Designo paint, which Mercedes calls Paprika Metallic, was a knockout, $6,500 change-of-pace from the usual classic silver or black). Doors operate with old-fashioned pushbutton handles and close with the reassuring thunk of a walk-in freezer, appropriate for an SUV that’s shaped like a refrigerator box. Nineteen-inch, AMG black alloy wheels looked positively kickass. Those optional five-spoke beauties are also a surprising bargain at just $500, though they’re clearly designed more for urban flaunting than muddy four-wheeling.
Смотреть в источнике
No responses yet