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Mercedes G63 4x4² review: a dinosaur for sure, but it’s not extinct quite yet
It’s utterly ridiculous, and hugely difficult to justify, but that doesn’t make this extrovert off-roader any less desirable
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The last time I borrowed a G-Class, when Mercedes-Benz came to pick it up my kids cried. I get it, I really do, because while I find the SUV-isation of our daily transport a touch preposterous, the G-Class has always somehow transcended that.
Mercedes-Benz insists that the G-Class is not an SUV, with Emmerich Schiller, CEO of the G-Class brand describing it as “an off-roader.” It’s difficult to argue against that, after experiencing them over terrain that even a mountain goat would consider difficult. That it’s been around forever helps, too - the G-Class having been conceived many decades ago, when tough 4x4s such as this were built for a purpose, at least other than to see over the car in front during the school run.
A legend in its own lifetime
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As such, the G-Class is a bit of an icon, Mercedes-Benz actually considering the G-Class more as a sub-brand within its line-up rather than a mere model line. So much so that the G-Class, which can trace its roots back to the late 1970s, was completely renewed in 2018.
You’d need to be an aficionado to tell the difference, so faithful was the new car’s look, while Mercedes insisted that mechanically the new G had to be absolutely true to the original. That means a traditional ladder frame underneath the body; no Land Rover-type modern monocoques here.
Off that sturdy off-road-based structure hang tough, multiple lockable differentials and axles with massive articulation, meaning that there really are few places that the regular G-Class cannot take you... it’s ridiculously capable when the going gets tough.
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Inevitably though, there are always people who’ll want a bit more, and that’s where the Mercedes-AMG G63 4x4² comes in. The people who build the G-Class have got form with the 4x4² badge, with Mercedes-Benz building one on the previous generation as something of a last hurrah before it was replaced. A niche then, but a popular one; while the expectation with the previous 4x4² was for sales of about 150, eventually 2,100 found homes.
All of which made it easy to find a business case for a replacement 4x4². Based on the performance-orientated Mercedes-AMG G63, which is itself already raucous enough for most, the 4x4² gets the twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine dialled up to 577bhp – the thinking evidently being that if they’re going to build such a preposterous thing then they might as well go all in. Green it is most definitely not, except in hue.
On the rocks, but not for long
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Stood in a valley, in Carcassonne, France, gawping at the Mercedes-AMG G63 4x4²s towering in front of me, I’m struck at just how ridiculous a vehicle it really is. Yet I can’t help but love it. It gains its increased height by using portal axles which, somewhat simplistically, are a pair of gears sitting on top of each other with the driveshaft entering at the top and drive to the wheel coming out of the lower gear into the wheel.
Those, and the huge 22-inch wheels and heavily knobbled tyres, mean the already near unstoppable G-Class can venture even farther off-road.
This thing doesn’t simply crawl over rocks, then, it straddles them. It’ll also wade through deeper rivers than the regular G-Class so, basically, if you want to get any further into the wilds than the G63 4x4² can take you, you’ll need a helicopter charter. Not that many will use that ability, but that’s no different than supercars that spend their time crawling around the finest postcodes. If you want to stand out, look no further, because the G63 4x4² is as overt a vehicle as you could ask for.
While that might not chime with the current rhetoric coming from car manufacturers, the AMG G63 4x4²’s excess is so outrageous that it’s difficult not to be hooked. Driving it around Mercedes-Benz’s preferred off-road testing area in France, it proves unbelievably capable. It will even wade through 1.0-metre of water - 100mm more than the standard G-Class or the venerable Land Rover Defender.
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There’s nowhere I point it that it won’t go, with utter impunity. That’s even true on the road where, height and width aside, it drives much like the regular G63. With its big, powerful twin-turbo V8 bellowing under the head-height bonnet it’s a smidge slower to 62mph than its mere G63 relation but, at a still neck-straining 5.0 seconds it’s certainly not lacking, and it sounds incredible too.
Do that and it hoofs fuel into the V8 at a rate that’s very difficult to rationalise but, hell, it’s so compelling when doing so that it’ll make you laugh out loud. It also corners with agility that’s surprising given its height and mass.
Conclusion
The Mercedes G63 4x4² is unquestionably a dinosaur, but it’s an apex predator just prior to its extinction – the likes of which we’re unlikely to see again, or, realistically, be able to justify in the future.
That’s what makes it so beguiling; the absurd cartoonish nature of it, all underpinned with the sort of engineering that means it really does live up the “most G-Class ever” billing that its creators have given it. Only a tiny number will be built, of course, with demand limited by the circa £250,000-£300,000 you’ll have to find to buy it.
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If you’re reading this, incredulous and slack-jawed at the lunacy of such excessive consumption and scale, then rest-assured - there’s a fully electric G-Class being readied, the forthcoming EQG – due in 2024.
Having ridden around the same off-road route in a prototype of it, it’s no less capable, either. Not as high, admittedly, but still mighty. Until then, as conflicted as I am about the G63 AMG 4x4², I can’t deny that I absolutely loved it. Even so, I’ll certainly not shed a tear when it’s gone, either.
Telegraph rating: Four stars out of five
The facts
On test: Mercedes G63 4x4²
Body style: Five-door 4x4
On sale: Now
How much? £260,473
How fast? 131mph, 0-62mph in 5.0sec
How economical? 13.5mpg (WLTP Combined)
Engine and gearbox: 3,982cc V8 twin-turbo petrol engine, nine-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive
Maximum power/torque: 577bhp/626lb ft
CO2 emissions: 456g/km (WLTP Combined)
VED: £2,605 first year, then £370
Warranty: 3 years / unlimited miles
Spare wheel as standard: Yes