The G-Wagen hasn’t had the sort of developmental history that can be easily divided into mid-life revisions and bigger generational renewals.
This one definitely counts as one of the latter, however. The car’s superstructure is all new, its axles, body panels, engines and interior likewise. But it remains almost entirely hand-built, with 100 man hours of assembly and finishing going into each example.
Like a traditional off-roader, it retains body-on-frame construction – although the body is now made of a mix of aluminium and steel, and is 53mm longer and 121mm wider than that of the last version. In combination with the ladder frame underneath, the whole structure is 170kg lighter than it used to be, but also 55% more torsionally rigid.
Mercedes-AMG was called in to help configure and tune the all-new suspension, which is, for the first time, semi-independent. Double wishbones support the car’s body at the front and are directly mounted to the ladder frame, while a tower brace reinforces the frontal structure under the bonnet. At the rear, an all-new rigid axle has been developed, which is secured via four trailing links per side and a Panhard rod.
