Despite going more than 30 years without a major update, Mercedes-Benz’s evergreen, military-esque G-Class, also known as the Geländewagen, will continue to be on the market for at least another six model years, the automaker’s constructor, Magna Steyr, says.
Over 200,000 G-Wagens have been built since 1979, when the civilian version of the military-developed Geländewagen hit the road. Subject to interior and powertrain revamps since (and a relatively thorough reworking that gave it a new chassis number in 1990), the Geländewagen nonetheless has soldiered on quite similar to the first ones off the line.
With the demise of Hummer an all but certainty, it comes as some surprise that Mercedes-Benz would choose to keep the Geländewagen in production. Though still favored by some Middle Eastern and Russian buyers (not to mention one buyer in Vatican City), the G-Wagen stays in production mostly to fulfill the demands of military users.
Despite selling less than 1,000 units last year, the G-Wagen has been officially distributed by Mercedes Benz in North America since 2002. Prior to that, gray market G-Wagens were imported by Europa International of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
