2002 Mercedes-Benz G500

2002 Mercedes-Benz G500 2002 Mercedes-Benz G500
First Drive Review From the November 2001 Issue of Car and Driver TESTED

In the Austrian factory where workers in blue jumpsuits assemble the Mercedes-Benz G500, there is a sign that reads, "Geländewagen: Robust und Exklusiv."

That sign describes the character and appeal of the Mercedes off-roader more accurately than anything the marketing department might have dreamed up. The defining characteristics of this vehicle, previously known as the Geländewagen, are indeed its robust nature and exclusivity.

That's a good thing for Mercedes because otherwise the reborn G500 doesn't make much sense. It is smaller, slower, heavier, and more expensive than Mercedes' mainstream sport-utility line, the M-class.

The G-wagen has been produced for 22 years and was sold mostly to the world's militaries, kind of in the mold of the original Jeep and the current Hummer. Robust means strong and vigorous, and it is certainly that. As was the Hummer, the Geländewagen was a status symbol for wealthy folks wishing to appear rugged, an affectation in the way the first sport-utes were, before everyone had one.

In this country, the trucks have been imported for years in minuscule numbers by a clever fellow in New Mexico who sold them for $130,000 and up.

The line of Mercedes M-class sport-utes, introduced in 1997, has now been firmly established, so the head office felt the time was right to sell this revised Geländewagen alongside them in its U.S. showrooms. Those Americans who purchased G-wagens at $130K will no doubt be fuming over Mercedes' decision to import some 1500 of the newly designated G500s at a sticker price of $73,145 fully loaded.

Still, that's mightily expensive for a 22-year-old off-roader. Not that high cost is a deterrent in the U.S. market, at least until recently. So now this new G500 becomes the exclusive Mercedes sport-ute, not the plebeian M-class. Its status-symbol appeal is why we expect to see as many G500s used as props in rap-music videos as climbing rocky mountainsides. (Mercedes is reserving 200 G-wagens for celebrity buyers.)

The G500 is a conventional body-on-frame, off-road truck design. It's built on an unusually stout ladder frame. It uses old-school solid axles front and rear, suspended by coil springs and located by heavy-duty links. Its full-time, four-wheel-drive system has two basic modes: "Rainy Day at the Club" and "Mountain Goat." Rainy Day uses four-wheel traction and stability control for all-weather versatility. The truly rugged Mountain Goat uses center, rear, and front differentials that can be locked individually from the cockpit, and it has a low-range gearset to surmount virtually any challenge. Traction and stability control are disabled in low range.

The boxy, unadorned steel body is traditional off-roading fare, coming from the creased-sheetmetal school of design. In addition to its utilitarian roots, the G-wagen is also from a time when sport-utes looked like what they were—off-road wagons. It hasn't changed since 1979, and we think there's an honest appeal to the upright sheetmetal.

Unlike the military version produced on the same assembly line, this newest G-wagen gets the full luxury treatment inside, with power everything, leather everywhere, burled-walnut trim, several dash pieces from the C-class sedan, and a GPS navigation system.

The G500 makes that characteristic resounding thunk when you close the door, meaning that it both looks and sounds like a bank vault. At about 5500 pounds, it's also as heavy as one. Although narrower and shorter (without the spare tire on the tailgate) than the ML500 with the same engine, the G500 weighs about 550 more pounds.

That weight and the G's tall, narrow proportions compromise its dynamic capabilities. There's body roll in even modest turns, and it feels ponderous in tight corners. Despite the 292 horsepower and 336 pound-feet of torque the standard 5.0-liter V-8 delivers, Mercedes expects it to take 10.2 seconds to reach 60 mph, slower even than the V-6-powered ML.