Review: 2017 Mercedes-Benz G550
MB World spends a week driving the entry-level G-Wagen on and off road, and discovers what makes it such an unusual machine.
If you were to draw a Venn diagram of the characteristics of an old-school sport utility vehicle on one side and the traits of a modern luxury SUV on the other, you’d wind up with an area in the middle that contained the similarities between the two vehicles. If you or I did the drawing, that middle ground would have the shape of a pointed ellipse. If Mercedes-Benz engineers were to do it, that spot would somehow wind up being a square, the same shape as the 2017 G550.
The G-Wagen occupies a similar place in automotive history and culture, one that looks nothing like it should. The G550 is an off-road vehicle can handle the world’s most hostile terrain, but is frequently seen transporting celebrities to department stores and smoothie bars. One of the most recognizable Mercedes-Benz vehicles ever doesn’t come out of a Mercedes factory or even Germany. The G550 has a three-pointed star on its grille, showing everyone near it that it’s a product of one of the most innovative and technologically advanced automakers in the world, yet its hard lines and aerodynamics-be-damned profile are right-angled throwbacks to the original G-Wagen of the late 1970s.
The base model in the G-Class lineup is the G550, which starts at $122,400. My $136,375 test vehicle, a descendant of the 280 GE that won the grueling Paris–Dakar Rally in 1983, was coated in $6,500 worth of designo Manufaktur Paprika Metallic paint. The optional Night Package darkened the bumpers, wheel arches, mirror caps, 19-inch AMG wheels, side trim, and roof. Everywhere I drove the G550, it was instantly noticed. My girlfriend and her co-workers took turns sitting in it and having their pictures taken. One afternoon, I was shooting photos of the G550 near a hilltop pool. As I was snapping away, a boy yelled out from above, “Is that a G-Wagen?” He wasn’t even alive when Mercedes starting officially importing the G-Class into the U.S. in the early 2000s, but he was old enough to know one just from a glance.
For all of the mystique that surrounds the G-Class and the financially elite that typically occupy it, it can be a confusing mix of times and materials. You grip a squared-off black plastic handle and push a button to open the thin metal doors. Shutting them requires a strong pull. Starting the boxy beast remains the process of inserting a “key” (the plastic fob you use to lock/unlock the rig) into a slot and twisting.
The interior of my review vehicle was dressed in $1,950 designo Porcelain Nappa leather, some of which shared space with exposed screw heads on the door panels. Industrial, meet indulgent. Anthracite poplar wood trim nearly blended in with the blocky chunks of black that surrounded it.
Second-row legroom was tight for taller passengers. At 5’10”, I found it a snug fit. I can’t imagine my 6’2″ friend Austin was comfortable back there, either. Thanks to the rear-mounted spare tire and cover, the back door seemed to weigh 1,000 pounds. Swinging it open revealed a 79.5 cubic-foot block of cargo space (when the rear seats were manually folded down) and a handle on the other side of the door that seemed plucked out of a Mercedes-Benz parts bin during the Reagan administration.
On top of that platform, Mercedes-Benz engineers piled modern infotainment and comfort features. I began referring to the G550 as an OEM restomod. The COMAND system gave me access to navigation, satellite radio, and my Bluetooth-connected phone, although I could only control those features through a knob in front of the shifter, not a touchscreen.
That was also where the button for the two-mode adjustable suspension was located. Comfort did a surprisingly good job of hiding the G550’s brutish origins as a hardcore off-roader; Sport was stiffer without being noticeably harsh. After a day of off-roading, I locked the adaptive cruise control in at 70 mph and a medium following distance. My pal Bryan cranked up the 450-watt harman/kardon LOGIC7 sound system. It was so clear it never seemed to be too loud. We thundered down the highway as its 12 speakers and subwoofer filled the giant orange cube with crystalline force.
On the road, the wood- and leather-lined G550 felt more like the traditional SUV the G-Class started as. The steering was leaden at low speeds, as if all power assistance had been shut off. Once I picked up speed, the wheel only communicated to me vaguely and lethargically. Every maneuver I made and every bump in the road reminded me that the body-on-frame G550 weighed nearly three tons.
Luckily, the G550’s engine is also straight out of a traditional SUV. No fuel-sipping V6 or hybrid power plant. The G550 has eight cylinders under its hood. At four liters of displacement, the engine’s on the small side. Two turbos bulk up its output to 416 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque, which is processed by a smooth-shifting 7G-TRONIC seven-speed automatic. I frequently found myself mashing the right pedal down just to feel those numbers push me back into my seat. According to Mercedes-Benz, the G550 can get to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds. There’s no way a vehicle that weighs 5,724 pounds should be able to get up to highway speeds that quickly, but the G550 can. An engine as small as the one inside of it shouldn’t produce such an addictively bestial roar, either. It does, though. By now, you shouldn’t act surprised. The G550 is no non-sense about being nonsensical.
The Texas Auto Writers Association’s 2017 Texas Truck Rodeo gave me another chance to take the G550 off-road. I had my choice of three trails to take around the Longhorn River Ranch. Itching to engage the G-Wagen’s front, center, and rear locking differentials, I chose the most difficult one, which offered a series of whoops and a steep “gauntlet” section with rocky protrusions and ledges that would test approach angles, grip, and ground clearance.
Given how mind-blowingly advanced its S-Class cousin is, you’d expect the G-Class to have the off-road hardware and software of tomorrow…or at least a new Land Rover. You shouldn’t. It conquers obstacles with gearing, grunt, and ground clearance. You can’t tell it electronically which kind of terrain you need it to take you over. There’s no off-road cruise control that manages the throttle and braking for you while you steer from the comfort of your heated and cooled seat. You have to do some work – think Wrangler Rubicon, not Range Rover. The G550 is more than capable of doing the rest.
The Mercedes-AMG rep who rode shotgun next to me scoffed at my eagerness to activate the trio of lockers. I couldn’t blame him. The G550 probably could’ve completed the entire course in low range. That didn’t stop me from pushing every button in sight, though. I activated low range before the G550 basically walked through the whoops. My fears of its towering 76.9-inch height being a potential hazard vanished as the rig descended into and climbed out of each depression, one side at a time.
The gauntlet portion of the trail proved to be similarly undaunting to the G550. Its 9.25 inches of ground clearance kept it from scraping its belly – and exhaust – on the chunks of stone that poked out of the loose dirt. The generous approach angle helped me clear an intimidating rocky outcrop. Once or twice the Pirelli Scorpion Zeros lost their grip, but that was nothing a line correction wasn’t able to fix.
Freedom is often seen as a luxury, whether it’s freedom from a 9-5 schedule, financial pressures, or everyday responsibilities. The G550 is free from the strictures of logic. It’s a relic of cruder times that’s a modern hit with the well heeled and fashion conscious. It’s yesteryear right now. The G550 proves that bank vaults can move quickly in a horizontal line, not just a vertical one – and that it’s possible to draw an ellipse with four corners.
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