Sunday Times review of G63
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-richard-porter-review-mercedes-am...
If you want to make a cool car in 2018, design it with a ruler. The sugar-cube-shaped Suzuki Jimny is getting rave reviews before it’s even gone on sale, and slabby old Land Rover Defenders sell for more than they cost new.
And in a resounding endorsement of why it’s hip to be square, the Adventure Car of the Year category in the recent Sunday Times Motor Awards was won in a landslide by the brand-new Mercedes-AMG G 63. Not that you’d know it’s all new. On the outside, it’s almost indistinguishable from the old model that dates back to the 1970s.
Indeed, you’d have to be a G-spotter to notice that it’s actually a little wider and longer than the old vehicle. Yet it uses only a handful of parts from its immediate predecessor, the most visible being the door handles. Otherwise, it’s all been Etch A Sketched on a blank screen.
Mercedes would rather you called it a G-class, to fit in with its current naming system, but it’s hard to shake the habit of using the car’s birth name, the G-wagen (short for Geländewagen, or “all-terrain car”) because, just like the original, it has a box-girder bridge of a separate chassis underneath and the hardcore off-roader’s muddy dream of three locking differentials, controlled by a bank of big switches proudly mounted slap-bang in the middle of the dashboard.
Mercedes has even retained some old G-wagen quirks, such as doors that require an almighty slam to close them and locks that operate with the whip-crack sound of an entire army cocking its rifles at once.
Another feature carried over from the previous G-class is an absolutely preposterous AMG V8. This wasn’t in the original spec for a car that was created as an army hack, but when it started to attract the attention of movers and sheikhs, Merc happily piled on the power — along with the leather — until a boxy reconnaissance vehicle had become a flat-sided Range Rover rival.
This is the mantle the new car picks up because, for now at least, it’s available in Britain only in maxi-bling spec, which brings together a beautifully crafted and very leathery interior and the 577bhp 4-litre twin-turbo V8 from the AMG GT R sports car.