Mercedes-Benz G-Class Review 2022 - Top Gear

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Car ReviewMercedes-Benz G-Class reviewPrices from£136,690 - £184,890 Leasing offers from

£1,733 p/m

External link towith Leasing.com810Tom FordPublished: 17 May 2024

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Skip 20 photos in the image carousel and continue reading1 / 20Advertisement“Mercedes Benz does enough to make the G-Wagen a strangely compelling product… even in 2024. You either get it, or you don’t”

Good stuff

G63 is an AMG GT on stilts, electric G580 is pointlessly fantastic

Bad stuff

Still hugely anachronistic, still not really efficient in any direction, expensive

Overview

What is it?

The latest generation of the venerable (try 45 years of consistent production) Geländewagen/G-Class/G-Wagen. In this instance, what has morphed into the ‘Luxury Off-Roader’ segment which has developed in time to only really contain … the G-Wagen.

Other luxury SUVs might be capable off-road, but the G remains committed to the aesthetic as well as the ability. And there have been lots of tweaks to try and keep the G at least in touch with the modern world, if only by its technological fingertips. 

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What are you actually getting?

Resolutely still a G-Wagen. So the same Etch-a-Sketch styling it’s had since 1979, barring the slight softening of the lines during the various facelifts and upgrades, the largest of which was in 2018. It’s still a five-seat luxury SUV, still features the full complement of diff-locks (front, middle and centre), still has the go-anywhere ability that makes it so appealing, even if it’s never used. Or very rarely, at any rate.

There’s a new six-cylinder G500 (which replaces the lazier V8), a G63 with trick new suspension and genuinely surprising dynamic ability, a really rather lovely G450d diesel, and 48-volt hybrid systems lending a helping hand throughout. And that’s before we even mention the new G580 with EQ Technology, a fully-electric G-Wagen that runs purely on electrons. That’s a car that weighs in with quad electric motors, 116kWh of useable battery packed into that resolutely ladder-framed chassis and punting out about 280-miles of WLTP range; not that much for a huge battery.

Four motors and reduction gears for each unit enable both millimetric control and earthmover levels of torque, the need for traditional differential locks rendered obsolete by torque vectoring so fast it never spins a wheel. You can read more about that particular car here.

You’re still getting that ladder-frame, old-school chassis though. Even if it is solid as a rock. So this will never be the most dynamic of things. Although the new G63 might have something to say about that.

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Interesting stuff. What else is new?

You can spot ‘new’ G by some subtle tells. The front bumpers are a tiny bit different, and there are new aerodynamic aids to try and help with the brick-tastic profiles; airflow tweaking mini-spoilers around the A-pillar and top of the windscreen (which try and hush some of the inevitable rustle of the upright windscreen as much as anything else), as well as a new slot in the rear wheelarch which probably does more than it looks like it does. All together they probably do make a measurable difference, but it’ll be marginal.

The G580 gets a different grille and the option of a squircle rear lock box for charging cables instead of a spare wheel, and the grilles on the ICE versions are dependent on spec and engine. You could probably learn to differentiate them, but no one ever really says what model of G-Wagen they drive. They just say ‘a G-Wagen’.   The interior has also been refreshed across the range, with a decent new MBUX touchscreen in the middle of the dash, attached very nicely to the digital driver-information screen. To be honest, it’s mild upgrades on the inside. There are the usual many (cost) options from the Manufaktur Programme, and plenty of upscale choices to be made. All quite normal for a car that’s seen more as a chunky road car than a mud-plugger these days. 

Our choice from the range

MERCEDES-BENZG450d AMG Line Premium Plus 5dr 9G-Tronic£134,305See prices and specs

What's the verdict?

“The G-Wagen will never be a paragon of efficiency or parsimony, but it’s still an amazing and largely unique bit of kit”

There’s always been the feeling that the G-Wagen’s time would eventually come, and that it wouldn’t be able to keep up with modern needs and wants. That time has not yet arrived. Mercedes’ willingness to apply a bit of a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude to keeping the G identity on the road has stretched even further, and it’s a huge surprise that it’s been actually quite successful.

No, the G-Wagen will never be a paragon of efficiency or parsimony, but it’s still an amazing and largely unique, if anachronistic (and hugely expensive) bit of kit. Plus, there seems to be a G for every occasion now, from the brash and exciting G63 to the fully electric G580, not to mention the sombre and useful G450d. A G for every taste.

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