What is the name of the Mercedes-Benz luxury large SUV known as the “G-Wagon”? The answer is G-Class.
The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is the luxury SUV commonly called the G-Wagon or G-Wagen. The nickname comes from “Geländewagen,” the German word for cross-country vehicle. Unlike many luxury SUVs developed primarily for road use, the G-Class began as a rugged off-road vehicle with military applications.
Mercedes-Benz developed the vehicle in cooperation with Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria. Production began in Graz in 1979, and civilian versions soon established the model’s distinctive boxy shape, ladder-frame construction and exceptional off-road ability. It later gained increasingly luxurious interiors and powerful AMG versions without abandoning its fundamental off-road design.
The G-Class is often confused with the GL-Class, which was a separate, more road-oriented Mercedes SUV line. The X-Class was a pickup truck, while the ML-Class was the predecessor of the modern GLE. A notable technical feature of traditional G-Class models is their use of three locking differentials, helping maintain traction on difficult terrain.