Mercedes-AMG G 63 review

Your passenger will continue to enjoy the security of a broad dash-mounted grab-handle, too, though this being 2018 it’s now inlaid, most likely with carbonfibre. All occupants will also benefit from substantially more leg and shoulder room than before, as will those perched on the spacious rear bench. Step from the old W463-generation car and into the new one and the growth spurt is palpable, and in fact the new car has grown in every dimension, now being 53mm longer, 64mm wider and 15mm taller than before.

The other fundamental change to the G-Class is found within the interior. The architecture retains an old-school feel with its squared-off panels, but that’s juxtaposed against two 12.3in displays mounted side by side. There are various parts borrowed from the E-Class, but it all feels suitably opulent, not to mention comfortable.

Ultimately there’s little here to upset the design junkies (moreover, this car looks far more convincing in the metal than in the pictures), though it is the driver who stands most to gain from the wholesale changes Mercedes has wrought.

With the help of a new brace that links the front suspension turrets, the torsional rigidity of the ladder frame and body shell has increased by more than half. The G-Class has historically been guided by a low-geared recirculating ball set-up so infamously indirect that, having only just turned the nose of the car in, you’d need to begin unwinding the lock simply to avoid running horrifically wide on exit. Owners have long held complaints on this score, and so there’s now electromechanical rack-and-pinion steering.

Laying the foundations for such a change, Mercedes also relinquished a rugged solid front axle in favour of using double wishbones mounted directly to the ladder frame (no subframe here). It’s not been an easy job. To maintain the G-Class’s tremendous ground clearance, the AMG engineers tasked with the design have had to position the lower wishbone’s attachment point as high as possible, fighting for every millimetre. Incidentally, ground clearance between the axles has increased by 6mm, to 241mm, and continues to better that of a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Behind the wheel of the AMG G63

You could fill a book with this car’s off-road vital statistics – breakover angles, wading depth and so on – but suffice it to say that when going gets tough, the new G-Class is superior to its predecessor in every measurable way, if only by a small margin.

Out on the road – and particularly along those in the Langedoc region of France, whose bitumen flows effortlessly – it is quickly apparent this car now possesses an attribute that has for decades evaded it entirely: handling.

In addition to the modernised front axle with its vastly improved new steering, there’s a new rigid rear axle that’s placed by four trailing arms with the continued use of a Panhard rod to prevent any undesirable lateral movement. There is body roll and it can be substantial if you’re really working the Goodyear Eagle F1 rubber fitted to AMG models, but the roll-rate is suitably commensurate with steering inputs, allowing you to work contact points that feel far more consistent.

Likewise, with such a high centre of gravity to fight against, it’s not long before the front tyres are chirping with understeer, but the thing about this new G-Class is that you can accurately predict when that point will arrive and drive accordingly. Play by its rules – be patient on corner entry, basically, and smooth – and you can get the G63 to adopt a satisfying rear-led balance as you knead progressively more torque into the road surface.

It’s old-fashioned, if slightly cantankerous, fun – farcically quick too – and the decision to adjust the torque split from 50:50 to a rear-biased 60:40 certainly hasn’t hurt the dynamics.

Ride quality is dramatically improved as well. All G-Class models will use adaptive suspension switchable through several modes, and while there remains a consistent low-frequency jostle, it’s subtle enough that you might now put this car to work as a long-range cruiser. Barring the odd clunk from a differential and not inconsiderable wind noise at speed, usability and refinement are now an important part of the G-Class package.

But let’s return to the subject of torque, because it’s remarkable that it has taken so long to get to the heart of the matter. In the case of the G63, that heart is Mercedes-AMG’s M178 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. Tuned for duties in a two-and-a-half-tonne off-roader, it develops 577bhp at 6000rpm and a bewildering 627lb ft at 2500-3500rpm, making it more potent even than its dry-sumped sibling in the AMG GT R supercar.

Top speed is 137mph, though it is a 0-62mph of 4.5sec that widens the eyes. The engine operates through a Mercedes 9G-Tronic torque-converter transmission with quite outstanding aural pomposity, and while not quite as serrated as the 5.5-litre M157 unit, its more hulking tone matches the old boy for sheer volume.

Cruise anywhere remotely near a parallel structure and there’s no doubt the exhausts exit to the sides, and so for all its new-found sophistication, this is still a machine those of a retiring disposition will tire of quickly. The G500 and G350d variants will differ in this sense, but neither is yet confirmed for the UK.