2021 Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG is an icon of many stripes

September 29, 2021

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2021 Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG is an icon of many stripes

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class has to be one of the most remarkable vehicles of all time not because of any groundbreaking tech it represents (though there is a bit of that) or any stylistic home runs that have tried to be copied ever since (also arguable, but bear with me), but because of what it hasn’t done: and that’s change much since it first started serving duty as part of the Shah of Iran’s personal armada back in 1979, that oh-so-infamous year in Iran’s history.

So Mercedes – where the Shah was a major shareholder – went ahead and birthed the Geländewagen, which translates to “terrain vehicle,” though the former sounds way cooler. They have kind of been doing it ever since (it is the longest-serving Mercedes model after the Unimog truck), to the point where the Canadian military itself continues to use the military version in its fleet to this very day. As does a handful of other nations including Greece, Norway, Belgium, Australia and of course, Germany.

The AMG G 63 you see here, of course, is about as far away from the military version as you can get when it comes to the G-Class. The huge 22-inch wheels (that don’t look as big as the numbers suggest thanks to the big ride height and gap between tire and fender) wrapped in Pirelli Scorpion Zero rubber, bright red brake calipers with “AMG” plastered all over them, twin side-exit exhausts on both sides, dark almost limo-tint side windows and silvery bash guards underneath – all of it screams “civilian spec.” Except the paint. The “deep-green” seen here does a pretty good job of showcasing the G-Class’ military origins; on top of that, it looks darn good and turned heads everywhere I went. Indeed, if The Hulk were a car, this would probably be it.

Inside, it’s more of the same, but before you get in, you have to unlock it of course and the sound those locks make when you plip the fob is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from a car before – normally, we talk about a car’s gearchange action sounding like a rifle bolt. With the G-Class, it’s the locks that recall that noise – and it is loud. The lights will flash when you plip the lock, but they don’t need to. You can hear those darn locks clicking into action from a block away. Just be sure you give those doors a firm thrust when closing in order to ensure those hefty locks reach their latches in the first place.

Open the very workman-like Jeep Wrangler-esque doors and you’re greeted with patented Mercedes luxury but with a bit of a twist. You see, my tester’s Black Fiddleback (yeah, I don’t know, either) open-pore leather comes as part of the “G manufaktur” line that offers a number of interior finishes specific to the G-Class. The exterior paint, as it happens, is also part of that line. Indeed, the black-brown leather looks fantastic and is a great compliment to the exterior paint.

Otherwise, it’s modern-Benz business as usual in here: all-digital modifiable gauge cluster and infotainment screen, vent roundels, analogue clock at the center of it all, steering wheel with more buttons than the Texas Instruments you had in high school and centralized touchpad controller. It’s all very chic, very modern and the way you can access the gauge cluster menus with a thumbpad on the left wheel spoke and the infotainment display (including Apple CarPlay) with a matching button on the right-hand spoke is a good way of doing things, once you get used to it.

There are some things, however, that are a little tougher to get used to.

It should come as no surprise that headroom is ample — just look at how tall that roof is! — but legroom both front and back isn’t exactly ample for such a large vehicle because you sit so upright and are surrounded by upright panels all over. I never quite freed my right knee from having to be pressed firmly against the lower dash. The placement of the interior door pulls never felt natural, either. It’s too far back on the door panels and too close to the leg, forcing users to contort their wrists in a somewhat uncomfortable way to release it.