Page 88 - Forbes India (December 2015)

Life ApprAisAL

Car: Mercedes-AMG G 63

By Jamshed Patel

n 1972, the Shah of Iran, a major TFT screen, the Harman Kardon gaiters or rubber bellows, and uses
shareholder in Mercedes-Benz Logic-7 music system with 12 a traditional re-circulating ball
at the time, decreed that a speakers, a 10-channel amplifier and mechanism that doesn’t transfer
I purpose-built, cross-country a 450 watt Dolby Digital surround the shocks from the terrain to your
military vehicle be conceived in system, and DVD players and wrists. It also gets the 7G-AMG
the form of the Gelandewagen. screens for rear passengers too. SpeedShift Plus automatic gearbox
Seven years later, the G-Class—a The G-Class is a with paddle shifters,
commercially available version of the typical vehicle built tech specs which lets you choose
G-Wagen—was available for civilians. from a left-hand-drive Type 5461cc twin-turbo between Comfort, Sport
Even in brand-conscious India, the architecture. The V8 petrol and Manual modes.
G-Class’s resemblance to people- knee-room on the back- Power 544PS@5,500rpm Despite the
movers like the Force Trax, Mahindra seat is appalling for a Torque 760Nm@ conventional rigid axles,
Bolero and Tata Sumo didn’t stop it vehicle this expensive. 2,000-5,000rpm the ride quality of the
from becoming one of the highest- Thankfully, there’s LxWxH 4662x1760x1951 G-Class is adequately
selling cars in the AMG portfolio. plenty of head and (mm) plush, notwithstanding
Mercedes-Benz has now launched shoulder room. The Price Rs 2.71 crore the body roll and
(Ex-Mumbai)
the Crazy Colour Edition of the body rests on rubber + Inverted snob value pitching under braking,
G-Class in India. The crazy part isn’t mountings, so there’s + Off-road abilities and the slightly stiff
pumping over 500 horsepower into less vibration in the - Handling suspension set-up.
something with the drag coefficient cabin and Mercedes - Price It has permanent
of a bread box, it’s the outlandish has done a good job of all-wheel drive
colours: Tomato Red, Sunset Beam insulating the noise. with low ratios
Orange, Solar Beam Yellow, Alien In India, the G-Class gets the G which you can select on the fly
Green and Galactic Beam Purple. 63 AMG, which houses a 5.5-litre, under speeds of 40 kmph.
The G-Class is offered in India twin-turbo, V8 petrol engine; it The G-Class occupies a unique
in the form of the twin-turbo G 63 is an ‘off-roader’ with supercar- headspace: Many before me have
Courtesy: overdrive remains utilitarian on the outside, mammoth can hit 100 kmph in a madness in its very existence, which
called it inverted snobbery. There is
like performance. The 2,550 kg
AMG engine. The design language
claimed 5.9 seconds (no thanks to
has now been exacerbated by the
and brimming with luxury on the
audacious colours. And then there
inside: Mercedes’s flagship Comand
the non-existent aerodynamics).
is that crazy price you pay for it.
The steering set-up has no
infotainment system with a 7-inch
88 | FORBES INDIA DECEMBER 11, 2015