Home for Christmas
 
Geländewagen in Germany
32 Years after Introduction
 
Article and Photography
by Axel Catton
 
When I heard the local Mercedes-Benz dealer near my home in northern Germany had one of the newly introduced Geländewagens on its lot, I had to investigate. Sure enough, I discovered a G-Class parked on the dealership’s tiny front lot.
Its muddy green color didn’t do much to make the car stand out and it was of course locked, so I peeked inside. None of the sales staff bothered to come out and greet me. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I arrived on my bike rather than in a suitable trade-in. Or perhaps it was because I was only 15. After all, this was 1979...

Early Days
The Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen (all-terrain vehicle) is one of the longest-running automobiles ever built that never had its sheet metal changed. Don’t get me wrong, the VW Beetle, the Citroën 2CV and the original BMC Mini beat that by decades, but if you look closely, all had some changes to their bodies over the years. Not so the G.
Conceived as a military vehicle in the early 1970s, an alternative to the aging VW 181 (later marketed in the U.S. as “The Thing”) and DKW Mungas, Mercedes-Benz set out to create the best all-terrain vehicle in the world. Development began in 1972 with a cooperation agreement between Daimler-Benz and Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz, Austria. The decision was made in 1975 to commence series production and construct new production facilities in Graz, where more than 200,000 G-Classes have been assembled, primarily by hand.
The G-Wagen I saw that hot summer day in 1979 was an entry-level 240GD three-door (or did they have to call it a four-door as the rear opening in those days consisted of two doors?) with the normally aspirated 4-cylinder diesel engine, offering all of 72 horsepower. Wow!
It was a manual, too, as our local farmers had no time (or money) for an automatic gearbox and such gimmicks. I bet it also had manual window winders. You see, our automotive market up there, if you want to call it that, consisted mainly of three brands: VW, Opel (the German GM offerings), and Mercedes. VW and Opel covered the whole market, except for the achievers. They were left to the Benzes, but only the entry-level, very sensible versions.
Most common were the W116 and W123 diesel sedans, the 200D, and the 220D. A 240D bordered on ostentatious, while a 300D was not to be found in our region. S-Classes did not exist either, unless they were beat-up W108s from the 1960s, converted to diesel power using a 100,000-mile, 2-liter, 55-horsepower 4-cylinder engine. Seriously.
The G was therefore a welcome, if unusual, addition to the Mercedes-Benz lineup, but it never really made a splash among the farmers near my home. It was successful with the army, of which we had plenty locally, however, and soon the Gs would pop up all over with their camouflage tops and multiple antennas, quickly replacing the VW 181s.

Variety
Initially, Mercedes offered four different engines: a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder; a 3-liter 5-cylinder diesel; a 2.3-liter gasoline 4-cylinder with 122 horsepower; and the boy-racer version, a 280GE with the 2.8-liter gasoline 6-cylinder, producing 150 horsepower. The station wagons were offered as short wheelbase and long wheelbase, with either two or four passenger doors. The convertible version only came as a short-wheelbase two-door, and initially had a complicated cloth top mechanism that looked more suitable to a military vehicle than to anything resembling a luxury car.
The rugged, boxy looks immediately made clear that this car meant business. While the Range Rover and the Jeep Grand Wagoneer had started the SUV craze with an impressive combination of off-road capability and on-road luxury, this was not the path Daimler chose. Stuttgart happily sacrificed creature comforts for unparalleled all-terrain abilities. Mercedes-Benz’s commercial van unit did much of the G’s development, so it came as no surprise that the utilitarian interior used many of the features well-known from the L207 van launched in 1976, the predecessor of today’s Sprinter van lineup.
The enormous steering wheel accompanied a small number of instruments, more like a bus than a passenger car. The speedometer on the first versions went to 100 mph, plenty for the lethargic top speed (75 mph) of the 240GD. Rubber floor mats and a checkered black-and-white seat pattern added to the feel of austerity, to say the least.
The no-nonsense exterior with the “wheel-at-each-corner” design was ideal for its intended use as an off-road vehicle, giving it great arrival and departure angles of 36 and 31 degrees. From the start, every G came with all-wheel drive and three manual differential locks as standard, setting it apart from the less-capable competition.
The original G, the W460, came with all-wheel drive that could be engaged via a push of a button; it was built for 12 years until 1991. The W461 built during the same period was an even more utilitarian version geared toward business use, with a limited range of engines and options available. The rare W462 was a joint project with the French to build a Peugeot version of the G, called the P4, for the French army. In Austria, Switzerland, and some other markets, the G was sold under the name Puch G, referring to its Austrian partner, through 2000. Today’s G, the W463, with upgraded interior/exterior trim, was launched in 1991.

Model Changes
The body styles have remained basically the same since the introduction. On the wagon, the rear-door arrangement changed from a two-door to a one-door design, hinged on the left. The convertible has seen the most significant changes, from its early tent-inspired design to a more user-friendly convertible-like layout in 1985. The biggest improvement came in 1996, when the G became the only off-road vehicle to offer a fully automatic convertible-top mechanism. Other slight changes to the exterior consisted of a colored grille ensemble and colored bumpers, added to the W463 generation in 1995.
Over the years, engine offerings and horsepower rose significantly. From the original 72 horsepower of the Euro-Diesel versions, power rose to 250 horsepower in the wonderful G400 CDI 4-liter V-8, discontinued in 2007. Today, the G in its latest diesel form delivers 211 horsepower. The gasoline versions’ performance rose from a modest 150 horsepower in the first 280GE to an awe-inspiring 507 in today’s G55 AMG.

The G in the U.S.
Although Mercedes celebrated 30 years of the G-Class recently, the history of this all-terrain vehicle in the United States is much shorter. Mercedes never intended to bring the G to the U.S., believing it too rugged and too utilitarian to appeal to discriminating American buyers. In addition, it was expensive to begin with, and the necessary changes for homologation to the U.S. market would make it as expensive as any Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan.
Despite the challenges, a number of importers started in the 1990s to import Gs privately, the most successful among them Europa International. Initially they offered primarily 6-cylinder models, but fully loaded and of course compliant with U.S. standards.
At first, Mercedes-Benz looked favorably at this effort, as it created additional sales and further visibility for the brand at little to no risk. In the early 2000s, however, Mercedes-Benz determined that it no longer wished to have a private entity selling one of its models in the U.S., so MBUSA began officially to import the G as a G500 for the 2002 model year, followed by the even more powerful G55 AMG for 2003.
As of early 2011, nearly 13,000 Gs had been sold in the U.S. (compared with more than 200,000 worldwide since 1979). So far, according to Daimler CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche, there is no end in sight. “Who knows?” he said at the recent Los Angeles International Auto Show. “We might be here in 10 years’ time celebrating the 40th anniversary of the G-Class.”

“G” Stands for “Germany”
But what is all this theory good for? To find out, I flew to Germany at Christmas to finally – after 32 years – get behind the wheel of a G-Class myself. Mercedes-Benz Stuttgart was nice enough to loan us a G-Class with the 350 BlueTEC diesel engine, proof that the G has survived its 32 years so well because of the constant improvements. The 350 BlueTEC powertrain is basically the same as used in the E, R, ML, and GL classes over here. BlueTEC uses AdBlue®, urea solution, which is injected into the exhaust-gas stream to reduce diesel vehicle emissions, especially nitrogen oxide. The 3-liter diesel six (don’t let Mercedes-Benz fool you with the 350 designation) delivers 211 horsepower at 3,400 rpm but produces 400 pound-feet of torque at only 1,600 rpm, more than the gasoline V-8 in the G550.
Our Obsidian Black test car featured little visible luxury in the gray leather and dark-gray wood interior, giving it an even starker black-and-white look.
The first things passengers notice are the archaic push-button door handles, derived from the 1970s Mercedes commercial van and unchanged since. The upright doors open and close with a familiar comforting chunk, proof of the almost perfectly sealed interior. Passengers sit high on 14-way heated and ventilated multi-contour front seats with three memory positions. Rear-seat passengers sit unusually upright, with only modest legroom. Other than that, the Mercedes driver will find a familiar interior using Mercedes-Benz controls laid out over a 1970s-style upright dashboard, with the Comand DVD navigation as its centerpiece.
One option not available to U.S. customers bears mention. The formidable stationary heater, yours for the modest sum of 1,900 Euro, pre-heats the interior (and the engine coolant) to a cozy temperature, allowing passengers and mechanicals to cope with ice and snow confidently.
The diesel-six starts up with no hesitation and idles smoothly cold and warm. The 7-speed automatic appears eerily high-tech but does a formidable job of keeping the low-revving diesel happy. Acceleration is far from brisk, with only 211 horsepower carrying more than 5,000 pounds. Top speed is noted as 110 mph. Our two-week trial on Northern Germany’s virtually frozen roads gave us little opportunity to test the on-road performance, other than on the high-speed runs to and from the airport. Traveling 110 mph isn’t exactly something to look forward to in a 2-ton SUV with the aerodynamic values of a barn door. The mandatory snow tires significantly benefited braking and handling, taking into account the car’s weight and inertia.
The unusually tall SUV (German registration data states 78 inches) provides a refreshingly stiff suspension to avoid excessive body roll. In fact, the passenger opinion was that body movements were much better absorbed in the German G than in the American ML. The height had its disadvantages, though. No parking garage in Hamburg had sufficient ceiling clearance to take the G, so it had to park on the heavily regulated streets, one hour at a time.
But much more than high-speed runs and parking maneuvers, we were interested in its off-road performance. While its successful history with military around the world, as well as the victory at the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1983, indicates that the G’s capabilities outweigh those of its driver by lengths, we nonetheless approached the task with gusto.
We took the G to the Danish island of Rømø, where cars can still be brought onto the beach. With temperatures of 20 F and weeklong snowfalls, the scenery looked more like the North Pole than a vacation tourist attraction. With its full-time 4-wheel-drive system, the center, front, and rear differential locks, and the 2-speed transfer case, the G saw no obstacles where we expected some, and passed the test with flying colors.
After our brief trip, I would be prepared to say the G can go anywhere you want – if it wasn’t for those darn German parking garages.
 
Snow and a flock of sheep: It’s Christmas in Northern Germany. The G-Class is a 2010 model with a BlueTEC 350 diesel engine. Thank you, Stuttgart.
 
Opposite: The town square in my parent’s village. This page: Handsome from all angles. Functionally luxurious interior. On the Danish island of Rømø. The technician topping up the windscreen washer tank at the local dealer.