It’s got some of the hardest angles you’ll see outside of a Lego set, combined with slab-sided styling that owes more than a little to the Brutalist tradition. Simple in its presentation to the point of suggesting a children’s toy scooped from the sandbox, and with more sharp edges than a drawer full of kitchen knives, it’s a true outlier whose separation from modern automobile design is best measured in light years.
You could certainly apply the above paragraph to one of the most polarizing vehicles on the market, the Tesla Cybertruck, a model whose ungainly proportions and awkward visuals have pushed it firmly into the “Fisher-Price for adults” camp for its many detractors. Alternatively, you could also take those same words and lavish them lovingly on an equally out-of-step automobile: the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
Redesigned for the 2025 model year, the Mercedes-Benz G550 stomps Jurassically into its fifth decade as the luxury market’s favorite dinosaur. The changes to its rectangular countenance are multiple, although you’ll have to squint to see them without a past example of the SUV sitting nearby for reference. Indeed, its most dramatic deviations from tradition are found inside the cabin and under the hood, leaving its exterior to cut nearly the same profile it did when it transitioned from military model to civilian spec at the end of the 1970s.
How does one truck designed with a set of T-squares manage to make itself into an icon, while its doppelganger-in-isosceles becomes a rolling laughing stock? It turns out that the soul of a machine tends to matter more than the sheer shock and awe of its sheet metal — and the G-Class is nothing if not a study in pure personality.
The More Things Change…
Despite its wall-like first impression, the squared-up G550 is actually more aerodynamic than ever before. Credit goes to the electrified version of the sport-utility, the G580, which gifts the gas model with the subtle curves of its grille, bumpers, even a small spoiler at the trailing edge of the roof. Its windshield might still look upright enough to kick a field goal through, but the two pillars that support it are less school bus and more rounded than in years past to also help the G-Class slice through the air a little better than a hurled brick at a ‘70s soccer match.
Helping it achieve the kind of velocity required to register in a wind tunnel is an all-new engine. Replacing the previous model’s V8 is the G-Wagen’s first turbocharged straight six, a 3.0-liter unit that provides a reported 443 horsepower and 413 lb-ft of torque. With a pair of shorty exhaust pipes that exit just behind the front doors on each side of the SUV, there’s no lack of aural excitement in the transition from eight cylinders to six, but the truck does trade a bit of raucous for refinement in the notes it plays while climbing through the rev range.
As usual, a nine-speed automatic transmission and full-time four-wheel drive are present and accounted for. Longtime G-Class traits like a trio of locking differentials are on hand, too, taking the place usually reserved for the electronic off-road overwatch found in most of its competitors.
Cherry-Flavored Cabin
The interior of the G550 introduces nearly as much change as its engine bay. Although this is still an SUV that favors front-seat riders versus those banished to a surprisingly tight back bench, the details of that confinement have seriously upped the ante in terms of details and materials.
I’m personally in favor of the G-Class’s restrained use of touchscreens as compared to models like the S-Class or the EQS, with the dashboard split between LCD displays for the driver and an elegant leather grab bar for the passenger. The steering wheel is somewhat overwhelming in terms of its various buttons and controls, but the console’s presentation remains simple and effective.
Can an Electric G-Wagen Match the Icon? We Went Way Off-Road to Find Out.
The only way to test the first electrified G-Class is to tackle inhospitable terrain, so our correspondent flew to the south of France to do just thatIf I had one complaint about the G-Wagen’s cabin, it’s that the $14,300 G Professional package outfitted to my tester — which slapped a steel roof rack, ladder, and bull bars to the exterior of the SUV — also introduced a cherry wood floor to the rear cargo area. Beautiful to look at and impossible to use without marring its finish forever, it’s the definition of impractical in an otherwise task-friendly model.
Rolling Red Carpet
Driving a G-Class is always an event, and unless you live in L.A. or New York (veritable hives of Geländewagens spanning every era of production), you’ll have to be comfortable with the outsized amount of attention this bruiser generates simply by existing in a public space.
If the scrutiny gets to be too much, just romp the accelerator and you’ll quickly exit the scene with startling speed. I have a hard time believing the new G550’s engine checks in with less torque than the V8 it replaces, as it simply felt quicker and smoother in every possible situation. This was especially true when passing on the highway, with the Mercedes-Benz picking up speed faster than a bingo pro dabbing a dozen cards in a church basement. If only that fire escape of a roof rack — designed for adventure camping, and also for blocking the SUV’s moonroof — didn’t generate an audible vortex above 50 mph.
Don’t ask too much of the G-Class when it comes to cornering and you won’t be disappointed. Instead, save your expectations for rough roads, deep mud and rocky inclines, where the G550 shines as an unstoppable force. I was impressed by how much calmer and more controlled the new G-Class felt over the spring-thaw-ravaged ruts and potholes surrounding my home, especially compared to the Aston Martin DBX I had driven over the same territory the week before. Credit goes not just to the Mercedes-Benz’s platform, but also to the decision to prioritize sidewall over section width when outfitting the G550 with terrain-friendly tires.
Heritage Over Histrionics
Not only can the Mercedes-Benz G550 legitimately go anywhere, but you’ll actually want to take it with you wherever you go. Yes, with a starting price just south of $150,000, there’s an element of conspicuousness that comes part and parcel with rolling up in a G-Wagen, but of all the oligarch-approved ornaments you could park in your driveway, the long-tail blockiness and theater of the absurd personality of the SUV’s design buys you more good will than most from the average passerby.
It’s here that the contrast with the Cybertruck is most glaring. The G-Class is big, bulky and expensive, but its backstory affords its shape with a workaday elegance that ascribes its proportions to a past life spent shuttling soldiers and construction workers across hostile terrain. That the G550 continues to project this task-focused character gives it a grace that prevents it from falling into self-parody.
The Cybertruck, on the other hand, lacks any form of subtext. In fact, it is entirely text, written in ALL CAPS COMIC SANS, shouting out a low-res render of adolescent fantasy that leans a little too hard on the kind of jokes most have left behind after they’ve graduated from high school and moved out of their parents’ basements. Unlike the G-Class, there is no history to be seen in the Cybertruck’s stainless steel, and that dooms it to a lack of any meaningful legacy outside of the profit and loss statements fetishized by corporate accountants and lonely billionaires.
It’s not at all difficult to imagine which of these two designs we’ll still be celebrating a few decades from now — and which one we’ll be doing our best to forget.
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