Robert Pepper’s Mercedes-Benz G-Class G350 review with pricing, specs, ride and handling, safety, verdict and rating.

In a nutshell: The Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen has a heritage stretching back decades and is every bit as iconic as a Land Rover Defender. Indeed the Australian Army has replaced its Defenders with G-Wagens.

[review]

Mercedes-Benz G-Class G350 BlueTEC

PRICEย $130,435 (+ORC)ย SAFETY NOT TESTED WARRANTY 3 years / 100,000 kmย ENGINE 3.0L diesel V6 POWERย 155kW at 3400rpm TORQUE 540Nm at 1600-2400rpmย TRANSMISSION 7-speed automatic DRIVE AWD/4WD with centre and front/rear locking diffS, low rangeย tyres 265/70/16 BODY 4662 mm (L);ย  1760 mm (W); 1951 mm (H)ย  TURNING CIRCLEย 13.6mย WEIGHT 2570kg payload 630kg GVM 3200kg SEATS 5ย towing 750kg unbraked, 3500kg brakedย max tbm 140kg ROOF LOAD 200gkg Ground clearance 205mm Approach/ramp/departure 30/24/22 degrees (excl towbar)ย FUEL TANK 96 litresย THIRST 11.2 L/100km ADR81/02 combined cycleย FUEL dieselย SPAREย full-size alloy

MOST CARS THESEย days are formulaic. Theyโ€™re powerful, safe, capable, useable and while they all look a little different and each has its own specifications, most of them are broadly similar, like eating out at any one of a number of high-street restaurants.

The G-Class is different, and properly different as opposed to just marketing-different. If it was a restaurant itโ€™d be an outback open air kill-you-own-food BBQ, yet with a maรฎtre dโ€™ and silver service. Whether you love or hate the styling doesn’t matter because you absolutely won’t mistakeย it for anything else on the planet, so letโ€™s get one thing out of the way, this car is unique and for many car lovers, thatโ€™s all they need to know. For the rest of you, read on…

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If that’s not disintictive and classic styling I don’t know what is.

Why it is so different is interesting. Originally designed in 1979 by Steyr-Daimler-Puch โ€“ of Haflinger and Pinzgauer fame โ€“ the G-Class is also known as the G-Wagen (G-Wagon), or Gelรคndewagen, which literally translates to cross-country wagon. So the roots are utilitarian, and indeed the G-Wagen has sold well to armed forces across the world including Australia which even had a 6X6 version created especially.

Carmakers like to harp on about heritage even when the doorhandles are carried over to a new model, but the G-Wagen doesn’t need to make a song and dance about its history – its obvious.

RMP_3455

The version you can buy and the one on test is the G350 Bluetec andโ€ฆ well, while I was going to say not utilitarian but thatโ€™d be wrong. It is very much a practical vehicle, but itโ€™s also oddly luxurious. The seats are leather, heated and can be adjusted eight ways plus thereโ€™s a position memory. There are cornering lamps, reversing camera, Bluetooth, a good sound system, 4Gb media centre, a sunroof and cruise control. I could list more, but what makes luxury most of the time isn’t actually the gear, butย the fit and finish and thatโ€™s where the G-Wagen has a sort of understated quality. Nothing about it feels cheap, which is true of many cars, but with the G comesย a robust, cross-the-desert air of solidity and that is becoming increasingly rare in new cars.ย 

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Don’t know what the maximum wading depth it, but it’s more than the depth of this river. We hope.

Also rare is the rather confused controls โ€“ I couldnโ€™t get Bluetooth to work without referring to the manual, the switchgear is tiny and fiddly, the interior doorhandles are cumbersome and in general the car takes some getting used to. The pedals are offset too โ€“ you need to lift your foot a long way backwards to reach the brake pedal, but you get used to that. But for some people all this is part of the charm.

On the road the G-Wagen is, again, different. Youโ€™re not short of power as the 2500kg vehicle is powered by a diesel offering 155kW and 550Nm through a fairly intelligent seven-speed automatic. Brakes are excellent, but the car does feel its weight unlike sportier 4WDs. I couldnโ€™t initially decide whether the steering was heavy, slow, or if the car just understeered.

Eventually I settled on the tiller simply being heavier than is the norm for modern vehicles. Thereโ€™s also a noticeable chirp from the tyres if you accelerate hard out of a corner, which delighted me because it meant the e-nanny wasnโ€™t working overtime, but worried me because it also indicates the car wasnโ€™t able to get power down to the ground as it should. It can however maintain a reasonably quick pace if youโ€™re careful with the weight transfer and steering input, which for some people is all part of the challenge and thus enjoyment. Yet back off a little and the car is easy, docile and relaxing to drive.

We decided to go for a bit of a Saturday night jaunt to the top of a mountain to see some snow, which we kicked around in for 10ย minutes and then drove back home. The route took eight hours and included motorways, very tight, wet, remote bitumen and a lot of rough dirt roads with some low-range work at the end, all at night and mostly raining then snowing. And the G-Wagen was confidence-inspiring for every inch of the way, just needing that care and thinking ahead as the engine can otherwise make promises the chassis canโ€™t quite deliver.

Mercedes hasย done a great job of making a live-axle car handle more like independent suspension, but as a driverโ€™s car the G does not approach the agility or dynamics of say a Touraeg, Range Rover Sport or a BMW.ย  And to be fair, all of those are great cars but anodyne identikits compared to the G.

IMG_3120
Top of Mt Matlock in a successful hunt for snow. We drove five hours to get there arriving at around 11pm, jumped out of the car, said “well that’s snow then”, got back in and drove off. I have a strange idea of of fun.

But high-speed work is not the G-Wagenโ€™s forte. Itโ€™s meant to be a rough, tough off-roader so into low range we go. And immediately thereโ€™s disappointment. Turns out that the G has an open centre diff, which is not great these days as youโ€™d expect at least a Torsen centre or something which intelligently splits torque/front rear.

And that would be why the front wheels are prone to chirping when you power out of corners – an inability to distribute torque properly which is subtly apparent on the road and painfully obvious off it.ย ย  The G has cross-axle traction control, but as Land Rover found with the first Discovery IIs and other manufacturers have since proven, traction control alone cannot compensate for an open differential in the centre, you end up with one miserable wheel spinning and three on the ground doing nothing.

So why not just lock the centre diff? Well, you can do that, which fixes the front/rear torque split problem but that also disables electronic traction control. This is wrong, very wrong and the G is the only car Iโ€™ve seen so designed. So youโ€™re then left with a choice between traction control and a centre diff lock (CDL), and thatโ€™s not good when you should have the simultaneous benefit of both.

IMG_2706
Tripe lockers – front, centre and rear. All engaged and ready to rumble.

But the G-Wagen has another trick and that is front and rear cross-axle locking differentials, and thatโ€™s fantastic. Lockers are absolutely wonderful in the right conditions, which is terrain that flexes the suspension yet is relatively high traction, most notably rocks. Lockers are of much less use in mud and sand, which is where traction control works extremely well, but would be even better with that locked centre diff!

IMG_2923
Definition of dumb design. Notice just one wheel is spinning? That’d be because the centre diff is OPEN. Lock it, and traction control disables. Very bad design. The car is immobile, had the centre diff been lockable then the right rear would have worked with left front to keep the car moving. Why, Mercedes, why?

Moving on from the transmission, the G-Wagenโ€™s ground clearance is 205mm, which is not great considering its off-road purpose, but approach, ramp and departure are good at 37, 23 and 27 degrees, respectively and itโ€™s heavy for its class too. But what the specs donโ€™t show, and what limits the vehicle is its suspension. Tuned for high speeds, for low-range work itโ€™s just too stiff and inflexible, which means the vehicle doesnโ€™t flow over the ground with all four wheels nicely weighted, and in particular the front axle simply doesnโ€™t articulate as it should. You ever see a classic Range Rover ooze over big ruts?ย  Well, it’s nothing like that.

On the positive side visibility is the best Iโ€™ve ever seen, better even than said classic Rangies, and youโ€™re never short of torque. The automatic is max-select, which means that when say 4th is selected the โ€˜box will use gears 1-4 inclusive rather than being locked in 4th, but it also seems that selecting 2nd will give you a second-gear start. Again, odd but kinda cool.

IMG_2819
Terrain the G-Wagen is built for. Love it!

In level muddy conditions the open diff and traction control works tolerably well, pulling the car through although thereโ€™s more bouncing from the suspension than is ideal. The weekend after the G-Wagen test I instructed in a Patrol on the same tracks and was impressed at how well the big Nissanโ€™s suspension soaked up the bumps and allowed the car to put its power down, in contrast to the Mercedes.

Yet in rocky terrain the Gโ€™s twin lockers and superb engine come into their own, and the G-Wgane can inch from rock to rock, with the driver safe in the knowledge nothing will be damaged from a touch. The stiff suspension is here an advantage at times, keeping the chassis high, but mostly lacks pliability. In hilly terrain you must engage the CDL for safety, and then you really miss traction control with that stiff suspension. If a single wheel has traction the lockers work, but if not, then leave the lockers out as theyโ€™re often counter-productive in slippery conditions and itโ€™s just momentum. At least the G has the power and robustness to manage a bit of an uphill rush.

There was no sand available on this test, but Iโ€™d expect the Merc to do very well given its CDL, ample power and decent handling, with only the weight counting against it and while traction control is useful in sand it is not essential.

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So what we have here is a competent and tough offroader, but itโ€™s certainly not up there with the best on the market.ย  The Defender handily beats on any terrain you care to mention thanks to ground clearance, angles and suspension pliability, plus has the marked advantage of traction control with a CDL. The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon gives away only ramp angle but in every other respect is ahead of the Merc, and having driven both these much lighter cars I can confidently say both have, overall, greater offroad capability than the G-Wagen.

But to discover the difference youโ€™d need to be pushing hard into very difficult offroad situations, and thatโ€™s not the whole story. The Merc is light-years ahead of both competitors for onroad handling and overall refinement, and matches the Defenderโ€™s 3500kg tow rating (with a 140kg TBM mind you, but the Jeep is a miserable 2300kg) so if it becomes a question of overall capability then the G is a clear winner, and indeed I think of it as more like that benchmark of all-round prowess, the Discovery 4.

The G350 doesnโ€™t match the Disco on-road or even for refinement, and itโ€™s not as good off-road, but the major difference for me is the sheer rugged bushability of the G – in extreme situations youโ€™re less likely to damage a G than a Disco, so if I had to go into some stormy forest at night to do a car extraction Iโ€™d take the Merc. It wouldnโ€™t take much to improve it still further โ€“ enable traction control with the centre diff locked, a slight suspension lift, taller tyres and disconnecting swaybars would do wonders.

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Two classics. The Defender was mine at the time. Kills the G-Wagen offroad – better clearance, flex, traction control with the centre dieff being locked, taller tyres (those are 235/85/16, stock size).ย  Also has better payload and cargo space.
RMP_3962
Does all right in these conditions. Wouldn’t mind being able to lock the centre diff and still have traction control working, and more control over the gears.

From a practical, overlanding point of view the G-Wagen has several good points and a few poor ones. Cargo room behind the second row is not bad, offering 960mm from the base of the seats to the rear door โ€“ Defender offers 1200mm, but thatโ€™s exceptional.

The Mercโ€™s boxy shape means youโ€™ll be able to fit lots in, especially as the wheelarches donโ€™t much intrude on the loadspace. The rear door opens the wrong way for right-hand-drive markets, and the second row is a 40/60 split with tumble-forward, nothing special. Under the bonnet thereโ€™s very little room for accessories, and the problem is worsened by the front panels which, ah-la Defender, cover part of the engine bay.

The battery is, bizarrely, accessed via a panel in the second row footwell, with no space for a second unit and itโ€™d be a pain to get to, plus itโ€™s a long way to run high-amp winch cables to the front. The glovebox and centre console are small, thereโ€™s just one drinks holder and the dash is somewhat fiddly. You could add accessories such as extra 12V sockets, but thereโ€™s too much going on with the dash as it is. Iโ€™d want to lose some of the luxo-kit in exchange for simplicity and weight, and indeed such a version of the G exists, the G-Professional, sadly not available in Australia.

IMG_3155
Pop quiz – what engine configuration does the G have? Yes that’s right, it’s a V6.

Ultimately, the G-Class is a car like no other. It is quick enough on-road, rewarding effort and precision but without any of that boring ease-of-use you find in modern cars. Offroad it is among if not quite with the best, yet its betters cannot match its high-speed dynamics, far less its (relative) refinement. It has presence, heritage, practicality, rarity, reliability and is far from being just a toy or trophy car but is a versatile vehicle you can use on a daily basis. And for me, it also offers something you donโ€™t get from identikit, me-too vehicles โ€“ the increasingly rare experience that is sheer pleasure of ownership.ย  I’d love to own one, maybe two and I can’t recommend a car more highly than that.

Interested in a G-Wagen?ย  Of course you are.ย  Here’s the Australian Gelandewagen Owners Association.

Mercedes-Benz G-Class G350 Gallery

Why so expensive and why can’t we have more of them?

The G is around $160k by the time you get it onto the road.ย  This is, everyone agrees, far too much.ย  I think at $70 or $80k there would be far more demand, and so do Mercedes – but the problem is the car costs too much to build, being so old so the costs are what they are.ย  It’s also a relatively low-volume vehicle.

Land Rover face a similar problem with Defender.ย  At least resale for Gs would be high, as if you bought a GL class and G class today I know which will be worth more in 2045.

Think of how much a top-end camper trailer costs, more than a new ute.ย  Yet there’s nothing like the complexity.ย  It’s all to do with efficiency of production and amortisation of costs, neither of which work for the G because it’s so old…yet that very age is the basis of the car’s considerable attraction.ย  There will never, ever, be new cars on the market like G-Class or Defender.ย  Last chances, guys and girls.

G-Class vs…

If you want an olde-world, capable 4X4 (and why wouldn’t you) then you can buy a classic Range Rover or a new(ish) G-Class.ย  If you buy the Rangie be aware it’s like owning a dog, a lifestyle choice not just possession of goods.ย  Rangies are high maintenance, delivering emotional highs and lows on a daily basis that you need to work for.ย  They’re also relatively common.ย  The G would be safer bet. Has much of the Rangie’s charm, is rarer, and frankly has this concept known as “reliability” so would be a much more sensible choice.ย  I realise now all the Ranige owners will be coming around my house to throw broken CVs through the window, but I’m not too bothered as they need to get their cars going first so I’ve got a while.

Defender.ย  You can think of a G as a Defender with a luxury interior (which ensures I’ve now also upset Defender owners and G owners).ย  But it’s true.ย  The basic design of strong chassis, twin live axles, even the body is more or less the same, but the G is more liveable, more modern and in the case of the G350, much more luxurious.ย  If you want a Defender for the sake of a Defender, consider a G instead – unless you want to do actual work.ย 

Utiliatrian though the G may be, the Defender has it beat when a job needs to be done.ย  The Land Rover is better offroad – clearance, flex, angles, traction control (in TD5 and later).ย  Both can tow 3500kg, but the G has a mere 140kg TBM.ย  There’s more room in the back of the Defender, and it has a much greater payload (around 1000kg in the 110 wagon) and there’s far more aftermarket accessories.ย  As a tool in the rough, good though the G is, the Defender is better.

But then there’s this:

The ADF’s G-Wagens

I’ve had a drive of them and here’s one.ย  An amazing vehicle!

IMG_4510

Too slow?ย  Try this, the amg G 63

The AMG version.ย  O-100 in 5.4 seconds, V8.ย  A crazy 400kW and 760Nm for a chassis designed to lug a load…this is perhaps the one car I’d choose over a Range Rover Sport if I had just the one vehicle for the rest of my life.

AMG-G

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9 comments

  1. Drug money, still and never better than TheKing L405 Range-Rover

    Because i am old i remember the first attempt at importing the G300 in the 80’s made BIG claims was going to end the the reign of The King, of course it failed

    THE funniest thing was [they where gutless] seeing a car/caravan overtaking them on a hill on the Hwy….PRICELESS

    One jurno during his first drive “whats wrong with it” ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. The G in the 80’s, a W460 chassis, was never meant as a competitor to the Range Rover. It was very similar to the early military G’s which had military requirements (it was conceived as a military vehicle) And the military did not need a cruising vehicle to go over 80kph.
      The W460 was expensive but the then new luxury car tax really killed it off in Australia, especially as the 1980’s was a very different 4wd market to now. The later W463 chassis had the luxury and engines to compete with the Range Rover, and these were not sold in Australia until reletively recently.

    2. Comparing apples to pears here. Find out what it was designed for and how exceedingly well it serves that purpose. And hand-welded stainless steel with proper breathers for all three diffs, all of which can be locked while in motion.

  2. I have some issues with this review. Firstly the pics are of a car at least 2 years old and pre a significant interior update. Given the very recent date of the review, there had already been announced a further major update including large gains in power and torque, none of which are mentioned. Pretty sloppy using old file pics, or regurgitating a very dated review.

    Next, the writer talks often of the G having an open centre diff. Note – ALL cars driven on road in road configuration (including the Defender) need and have an open diff to allow for differing rotational speeds of the front and rear drive shafts, otherwise they will ‘wind up’ on themselves or destroy the transfer case at worst. Most 4WD’s have the option to shift the transfer case lever to High range with locked centre. Benz conveniently give you a button to lock the centre diff, and then subsequent buttons to conveniently select locking of either front or rear differentials. I disagree with the author’s comments of traction control being superior to this. Traction control is a very compromised and cheaper solution than locking differentials, which resorts to braking the wheel or wheels which lack grip, to send the torque across the axle to a wheel that has grip. This often results in fatiguing the braking circuit. It is also a reactionary solution, meaning the wheels lose grip first and then sporadic amounts of torque are distributed to the other wheel/s often with a jerky action which can exacerbate the lack of grip. Conversely there is no better option than having all wheels turning together irrespective of what is going on under them, allowing for smooth progress even if a front and rear wheel are in the air. How the author suggests there is some unexplained magic where traction control can improve on this, is a mystery – or I’d suggest, nonsense.

    Don’t agree either, re interior room. Defender 110 is tiny inside, no rear legroom, barely any better in front and smaller usable load area.

    Love the G, and the Defender despite the compromises. Both great for different reasons, though the G is likely the better choice as a more usable vintage experience, but its more than double the cost. It feels like its machined from a block of granite. The Defender less so – and it leaks like a bastard!

    There you have my ‘counter-review’!

    1. Hello Mr N State,

      Always appreciate thoughtful and detailed comments. Here is the response:

      Car date
      Well spotted, that’s a 2012 model. We didn’t say it was a current model – check our other reviews and if it is a current-year model we state that in the title, eg “2015….”. This review was reprinted on the basis it is still useful, as was the Amarok review also recently reprinted.

      Centre diff
      This answer is a lot more involved. Not all AWDs have a simple open centre diff, and indeed very few have such a basic system as an open diff is terrible at sending torque to exactly the wrong place. Examples of better AWD centres are Torsen centres (Prado, Amarok, LC200) or electronically controlled clutches (Land Rovers, Everest). These system permit front/rear axle differetiation of speed yet distribute torque well front/rear. Mitsubishi and Suzuki’s systems have a 40/60 front/rear split which is in my view is about ideal, as do BMW. So a simple open centre is outdated, particuarly in the case of a powerful turbodiesel such as the 350. The Defender has one too by the way.

      The problem with the 350 is that once you lock the centre diff you disable brake traction control. That this is a disadvantage is clear and not in my view up for debate. I used the 350 to demonstrate cross-axle lockers vs traction control with c/d locked/unlocked to a group of 4WD instructors and the point was very clearly made. With the c/d open the 350 struggles as the traction control cannot send torque where it needs to go, fighting the open c/d. With the c/d locked traction control is disabled, and the 350 lacks to requisite suspension flex (a la Defender, classic Rangie, Patrol) to compensate.

      Cross-axle lockers vs traction control is a subject that will be covered in detail on this site shortly (including video), but in brief both very much have their place. Consider for example shallow, slippery mud – how would your triple-locked G fare trying to manouvre? The answer is not very well (massive understeer caused by inability of the wheels on each axle to differentate, let alone the front/rear axle split), and as the photographs show, I tried it and demonstrated the same to the group of instructors. However, when it comes to straight ahead rock climbs then lockers remain supreme.

      You refer to a jerky action with traction control. That’s the old systems. The new ones are smooth and effective, none more so than the Pajero Sport I tested last week in Japan.

      Cargo room
      The reference was to cargo room behind the second row and here the Defender has a significant advantage. It also has much the greater payload, although there are utilitarian 350s that are not cost-effective to sell in Australia.

      Build quality
      Agree the G is much better built. However, the Defender’s underpinning and running gear are very strong, it’s just the trim and body that lets it down. The G is strong all the way through, and feels it.

      1. thanks for the reply. I am still struggling with all of your anti sentiment toward open centre diffs. They’re very common in serious off roasters. Your picture caption about the one wheel spinning and “if only it had a locked centre diff” is just bad journalism in my books. The car is on a dirt road where a locked centre diff is but a press of a button away, and can be left engaged whilst ever the low friction surface exists. I don’t get it.

        Regarding difficulty turn with diff lock systems, clearly in tough going you lock the centre diff first and then rear diff. This configuration will cover almost all off reading situations. On the rare occasion a front diff lock may be required. All other times you leave it off to aid steering. Seems to me you are looking for faults and/or not really applying the systems at the appropriate times and then judging the failing progress as a result.

        I also stand by my comment of it being quite poor to post a current article with out of date shots of the car. That’s not the norm and gives the wiring impression to the future buyer. Poor form really – couldn’t be too hard to snap off some current pics to complete the article.

        1. The purely open centre diff is not ideal but not a problem if it can be locked. The problem with the G350 is that when the c/d is locked ETC is disabled. This is dumb design. The photo shows ONE wheel spinning as there are 3 open diffs, albeit with traction control…which is ineffective at torque distribition f/r. When the c/d is locked, ETC is disabled…robbing the 350 of a valuable traction aid. Most cars permit c/d locked with ETC. So, I’m not against c/ds at all. I’m against the dumb idea of disabling ETC when the c/d is locked. Big difference.

          As for lockers, well sometimes you use rear only, but if a car is twin-locked I generally engage both at the same time. The car does the track easier when twin-locked, why spin it up with only the rear, particuarly given the lack of flex in the 350.

          We’ve discussed the date comment before and I have nothing further to add other than I didn’t have a 2015 car to photograph.

          1. Thanks again for the follow up Robert. Yes I agree it seems odd re disabling traction control when the centre diff is locked.

            FYI I pick up a new Defender 90 next week! Still enough change to buy a new 200 Landcruiser. This to me, highlights the biggest problem of all with the G350 – even greater than the driveline configuration!

            Cheers.

          2. The intelligent thing would be to engage centre and rear DL at least; the error is not with the car but with the method followed.

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