Mercedes G-Wagen - Everything You Need To Know | Up to Speed

What's up guys, fire up your sad reacts. Because today we're talking about a tragedy. The most tragically misused car in the history of cars. The Mercedes G-Wagon.

This thing is legit one of the most rugged, capable foreman's ever to roll across this muddy fat earth, yet most people know it as nothing more than an angular status symbol for rich people. Using a car designed to endure brutal off-road punishment for nothing rowdier than a Starbucks run at rush hour is like wearing a Rambo outfit on a Starbucks run during rush hour.

So how did the car designed for sheer military functionality become a status for fancy folk? What makes it such a beast off road? And will it carry the torch of boxy 80s styling into the 22nd century?

We'll ask what this video is about. Let's get you up to speed on the Mercedes G-Wagon.

Big thanks to K&N for sponsoring today's video. You know, car folks like us, well, we follow the same four seasons just like everybody else does. You got spring, summer, fall and garage. And you know it's garage season when it's too cold to be outside.

I mean, look at that authentic natural Los Angeles snow. There's no better time to be here in the garage upgrading your project cars with the best parts like these K&N filters. And you know, K&N got their start 50 years ago, right here in Southern California. They provide upgrades that are simple to install and even custom designed to fit all makes and models.

Now when you think about it, K&N is really the reason for the garage season. Wow, it's really coming down now. It reminds me of those long Ohio garage seasons from my youth. Sledding on snow days, making hot cocoa, helping dad install K&N parts on his project car. You know, dad always said,

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- What's up guys, fire up your sad reacts.Because today we'retalking about a tragedy.The most tragically misusedcar in the history of cars.The Mercedes G-Wagon.This thing is legitone of the most rugged,capable froader's ever to rollacross this muddy fat earth,yet most people know itas nothing more than anangular status symbolfor rich people.Using a car designed to endurebrutal off-road punishmentfor nothing rowdier than aStarbucks run at rush houris like wearing a Rambooutfit on a Starbucks runduring rush hour.So how did the car designed forsheer military functionalitybecome a status for fancy folk?What makes it such a beast off road?And will it carry the torchof boxy 80s styling into the 22nd century?We'll ask what this video is about.Let's get you up to speedon the Mercedes G-Wagon.(joyful music)- Big thanks to K&N forsponsoring today's video.You know, car folks like us,well, we follow the same four seasonsjust like everybody else does.You got spring,summer,fall and garage.And you know it's garage seasonwhen it's too cold to be outside.I mean, look at that authenticnatural Los Angeles snow.There's no better timeto be here in the garageupgrading your project carswith the best partslike these K&N filters.And you know, K&N gottheir start 50 years ago,right here in Southern California.They provide upgradesthat are simple to installand even custom designed tofit all makes and models.Now when you think about it,K&N is really the reasonfor the garage season.(slurping)Wow, it's really coming down now.It reminds me of thoselong Ohio garage seasonsfrom my youth.Sledding on snow days,making hot cocoa,helping dad install K&Nparts on his project car.You know dad always said, "K&N products,make your vehicles run cleaner,go faster and drive further."We even use K&N here at Donut.They offer everything from air filters,cabin filters,air intakes,oil filters,exhausts,electronics and more.So, go to knfilters.com/donut,for special discounts today.Whoa, Jake, where's my snow?- We're out of snow.I got ice though.I can give you hail.- Okay.- I gotta clean that up.- The gland of Oregon,which translates to cross country vehiclefirst spun up in the early 1970s.The Shah of Iran,who was also a Mercedes shareholder.Suggested the company developeda military style off-roaderto compete with Toyotas Land Cruiser,and Jeeps Jeep.Mercedes took note of the Shahs suggestionand bigger note of the factthat he ordered 20,000 of themfor the Iranian army,and began developmentof the G-Wagon in 1972.To produce their truck Mercedes partneredwith an Austrian parts buildercalled Steyr-Daimler-Puch,which was co-founded a long time agoby the son of the guy whobuilt the first Mercedes,Gottlieb Daimler.Mercedes engineers werein charge of designingand testing the G-Wagon,while Steyr-Daimler-Puch were entrustedwith the final assembly of the vehicles.This deal gave each companya 50% stake in the car,and is also the reasonwhy it was originally soldas the Puch G in Eastern Europe.We included that becausePuch G sounds like a bulimic cartoonGerman shepherd that raps.Here's a cool weird factoid about this carthat makes a lot of sense.The first design model of theG-Wagon was made out of wood,not clay, wood.Which is easy 'cause it'sshaped like a fricking dresser.Mercedes engineers started testingthe G-Wagon prototypes in 1975.First in coalfields near Cologne, Germany,where they ran it over boulders and sand,through water and mud,up steep inclinesand down craggy descends,craggy's one of my favorite adjectives.The test crew discovered the G-Wagonhad the mind shattering abilityto climb slopes as steep as 45 degrees.Now let me break thatdown for those of youwho slept through geometry.90 degrees is straight up,all right.So 45 degreesis half straight up,that's half vertical.Most black-diamond ski runstop out at about 35 degrees.So, drive a car up thatplus 10 clicks.Mercedes engineers alsoperform corrosion testing,in the dangerous Chottel Djerid salt flatsof the Sahara Desert,extreme cold and ice testing,in the Arctic circleand log thousands of kilometers off-roadin the Austrian Alps.The engineers even tested backing downthe three mile driveway ofJohn Mayer's ranch in Montana.All the world's most extreme conditions.The designer's focus thenturn to ensuring the G-Wagonwould also offer impressive handlingand drivability on the road.Which many experts of the time thoughtwas virtually impossiblefor a vehicle like this.Let me explain,Mercedes chose to make theG-Wagon a body on frame truck,reflecting its intended heavy duty use,this made it more durablethan a typical uni body vehicle but,body on frame trucks, especiallythose with solid axlesusually ride like heck.So Mercedes engineers intenselyfine tuned the suspensionto keep the ride as smooth as possibleand as a result,the G-Wagon,it rides like a truck,but the Mercedes version of a truck.Steyr-Daimler-Puch built anentirely new production facilityin Graz, Austria, specificallyto assemble G-Wagons by hand,and the productionfinally began in 1979.Unfortunately, this was toolate for the Shah of Iranwho was deposed in February, 1979and never got his 20,000 Benz's.You win Shah, you lose Shah.The G-Wagon went on sale to the publicas the W460 in September 1979,in three different body styles.You got your two door convertible,your two door wagon,and your four door wagon.It quickly became known asone of the most rugged SUV'son the market,able to withstand just aboutany driving conditions,thanks to its robustfour wheel drive systemthat utilized three locking differentialsand heavy duty,super articulate,solid axles front and rear.Without the Iranian Shaharound to corner the market,the Argentine army was the first militaryto enlist the G-Wagon.Around the same timethe car made headlines,when the Vatican ordereda specially made modelwith a plastic top toserve as the Pope mobilefor John Paul the second'sfirst visit to Germany.The Pope was the firstceleb to flex the G-Wagon.Which kinda makes sense when you ponderwhy these rugged off-roadersbecame iced out status symbols.The Pope has more dripthan a diamond faucet.Mercedes made the first major refinementsto the G-Wagon in 1981,making the trucks availablewith amenities likeair conditioning,and automatic transmission,but air conditions and Pope filledstill did not mean luxurious.And we're still a longway from finding a G-Wagonparked in Nick Cannon'sDrumline theme garage.I've been there,it's really cool.In 1983, Jacky Ickx and Claude Brasseurtwo of the best named gentlemen in historywon the Paris Dakar rally in a G-Wagon.They didn't just win their classin the toughest most gruelingrally race on the planet.They won it outright, first.Their 280G survived a sand stormthat took out 40 other competitors.In 1988, a dude named Gunther Holtorf,another great name,bought a G-Wagon with the intentionof driving around Africa for 18 months,instead, he drove it 557,000 milesthrough 215 countriesover the next 26 years.And it never requiredany major repairs.This car,I would call this car a tank,but I don't think a tank could do that.So there's a seed ofirony in the G-Wagon'seventual popularity in theAmerican luxury market.Mercedes never officiallyexported the G-Wagonto the United States specificallybecause it didn't fit the brand'sluxurious reputation in America.Another issue was that the W460 G-Wagonwas underpowered compared tothe popular American SUV'sof the day,despite its tough exteriorand excellent off-road performance.The truck's most common engineput out less than a hundred horsepower.That's ridiculous 'cause it,you can literally registerit as a commercial vehiclebecause it's so fricking heavy.Now, despite theserather large speed bumps,G-Wagon started appearing onthe gray market in the US.This meant small Americancompanies would import them,modify them to meet Americansafety and emission standards,and then sell them at a heavy markup.The combination of a high price tag,plus extreme raritymade the G-Wagon an instant status symbolfor the American upper crust.And we all know that the upper crustis the best part of the crust.It's right by the edge of the pan.It's a little caramelized,it's a little brown,it's real fricking crispy.Hm-mm I might have a pot pie after this.G-Wagon still weren't luxurious but nowthey were in demand.So, when Gray-Market Importswere outlawed by the 1987Vehicle Motor Safety Compliance Act,which I hate that,I hate that act,a small company in New Mexico calledEuropa International decidedto undergo the long andcostly process of federalizingthe G for the US market.This is very similar to what Motorex didwith the R34 skyline inthe early two thousands.And if they wouldn't have been shady,then maybe we could see asmany skylines on the road now,as we see G-Wagons.Maybe Nissan would have startedimporting them, themselves.The process took five years,but in 1993,Europa started selling G-Wagons,now, as the car's exclusiveUS importer and distributor.You could say,they cornered the marketon the car that's all corners.(crickets chirping)Mercedes noticed that luxury shopperswere willing to pay a lotfor barely pimped out G-Wagons,for reasons that didn'treally make sense but,if it meant more money,why not lean into it.So in 1990, they retired the W460,and replaced it with two newheavily upgraded models.The W461 directly replaced the W460.Which was still popular with militaries,governments and NGOs,but the W463was finally an officiallyluxurious luxury wagon for luxury.How much luxury, you ask?I'm talking Burl Wood trim luxury.This truck was so classythat in 1994 Mercedesofficially renamed it,the G Class.Now despite me just sayingrich America's appetitefor barely legal G-Wagonsmotivated the factories movetoward luxury.Mercedes still wasn't selling these carsin the US themselves.So in 1998, Europa receivedsmall volume manufacturer statusfor the G-Wagon and reacheda deal with Mercedesto have some cars prebuiltto meet US standardsat this point,Europa was responsible for sellingover 10% of G-Wagons worldwide.In fact, Europagot so successful at moving vehiclesthat Mercedes decided toput them out of businessby buying back US distribution rights,and making the car an officialpart of the American life.The G Class officiallydebuted in the US in 2001,22 years and multiple Pope mobilesafter it came out in Europe.The American G500,was souped-up with a 292horsepower, five liter V8,to compete with the Escaladesand Range Rovers in its classand in case that wasn't enough,Mercedes also broughtover the AMG Tune G55,toting at 350 (indistinct),5.5 liter V8.This thing had side exit exhaustand did zero to 60 in about seven seconds.Which is greatfor a car that weighs asmuch as a literal shed.Like it weighs as much as a shed.The G55 AMG sold more thanany other G-Wagon variantin the US for years,but it wasn't enough forthe nitrous saddle brainsof America's craziest orthodontists.So in 2005, AMG threw asupercharger at the G55,up in the (indistinct) numberto a really nice 469,and dropping that zero to60 time to 5.6 seconds.That's like almost asfast as a Porsche 911at the time.Also 469,is a really funnycombination of 420 and 69.Which we've all agreedare the funniest numbers.The G55 AMG established the G-Wagonas one of the premier luxury vehicleson the North American market.So, like any smart business would doMercedes tried to ax it.In 2005, the Benz boys announced plansto stop selling the G-Wagon in the USjust four years after its introduction.Why?Well, they wanted toreplace it with the larger,more pavement oriented,less angular GL Class SUV.500 final units of theG500 and G55 AMG were builtand shipped to the United States.And that was that until,the US Marine Corps ordered 157,interim fast attack vehiclesbased on the G Classfor the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.There's a lot of weird backand forth between militaryand wealthy civilianinfluence in this storywhich is confusing,because usually they're one in the same.I mean, everyone knowsthat the cruise missileis named after Tom Cruise.Just like the shoes arenamed after Michael Jordan.Thanks to the Marines,Mercedes never stopped making the G class.And thank God because I want one.In 2013 after too much timehovering nitrous oxide,Mercedes dropped a sixwheel G-Wagon because,I don't know, why not.The G63 AMG six by six,a six wheel drive,luxury sport utility truckwith a twin turbo V8 was derivedfrom a one-off developmentfor the Australian army.But that was nothing compared tothe 2018 Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landauletat least as far as price goes.This extended wheelbase,half convertible G unitcost a cool $800,000making it the world's most expensive SUV.The first one in North Americawas bought by none otherthan certified Benz lover boy, Drake.If you say you don't love Drake,you're a liar.But for every ultra luxo Gunit hard parking in the Hillsthere are 20 more stripped down,hardcore G-Wagons stayingtrue to their roots.And at this point in thevideo you might be wondering,did Mercedes ever redesign the G-Wagon?Every single one of thesethings from the W460 of 1979,to the Maybach Laundromat of 2018,they'll look like the same.That's nearly four decadeswithout a redesign.What is this, a Nissan video?Who am I?Nolan?Well, technically Mercedesdebuted a second generationof the G Class at the 2018North AmericanInternational Auto Show but,compare this one to this one.But in Mercedes defense,like why mess with an icon.Now just a few monthsago Mercedes previeweda fully electric G Classconcept called the EQG.It looks like every otherG-Wagon for the most part,but this one is powered by fourindependent electric motors.Mercedes confirmed a productionversion of the EVG Wagonfor 2024 ensuringthat the next generation of rapperswill be able to flexjust like my best friend Dre.Today the G Class is rightfully viewedas one of the vehiclesthat defines Mercedes-Benz.Is nothing short of an icon.It's been in productionfor 42 years straight.And even though it's often associated withthe real housewives of every rich suburb,the G-Wagon is legitimatelyone of the coolestand most capable vehicles ever.I want one.Not many cars,can be at home in Beverly Hills,and the North Pole.Long live you G.(gentle music)Hey friend,I know where you're at.You forgot to get a gift forthe Donut fan in your lifeand it's too late foranything to be shipped.Well you're in luck'cause Donut Media gift cardsare a thing.And you can get 'em insome phenomenal increments.I'm talking $25,$50,$75,$100,$150.And if you wanted to dosomething crazy like,$7,500 give me a calland we'll work something out.The Donut Media giftcards are 100% digital.They don't rely on the old schoolguy on a horse delivering things,which is how I assumethings still get to people.And each of 'em are designedafter an 80s credit card.Which is a genius ideathat I came up with,in literally three seconds.So head on over to donutmedia.com,and pick up your perfectstocking stuffer, today.Thank you guys so muchfor 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