Sadly, Gunther's wife Christine passed away in December 2010, however, her wish was for Gunther, 74, to continue his journey which will come to its epic conclusion next year, his 23rd year on the road. So far, the G-Wagen, affectionately known as "Otto" has traveled the equivalent of 20 times around the equator with more to come.
Otto the G-Wagen is powered by a 3.0 liter diesel that managed to punch out about 85 horsepower when new, but it is said to have plenty of pull down low. Not only has Otto managed to travel over 500,000 miles, it did so with a laden weight estimated at 7,275 pounds (including genuine Mercedes Benz spares). Every time the odometer approached 60,000 miles, Otto was returned to a Mercedes Benz dealership in Europe.
Incredibly, as every 100,000 miles travelled milestone ticked over, one of the dealerships would take off the instrument binnacle to place a different sixth digit that would be stuck next to the original five-digit clock.
When Gunther and Otto come to the end of their amazing journey next year, Otto will retire to the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart.
