I Bought My Dream Mercedes-Benz G Wagon AND Immediately Took It Off-Road!

Hey Andrei, do you remember when I went to Moab eight years ago and I got to drive the three G-wagons, the 55, the 65 and the 63? Yeah, I remember this because it was beautiful and I was really jealous because I wasn't there. Well, I fell in love with the G-wagon and ever since then it's been really my dream vehicle. So today Andrei, guess what? Are we buying a G-wagon? Yes, we're buying a G-wagon. It's triple black. It's a 2016. But why triple black, Roman? Because they're all freaking black or silver. It's hard to find anything else. But I have a plan for that, Andrei. Okay. This is TFL color, at least half of it. The other TFL color is red. Correct. So I think we can wrap. I see it, Roman. It's red. Yes, you can wrap this side red. We have got calipers. Keep the hood black and then turn this AMG 63, which is by the way, the big boy, V8, 563 horsepower. This is a G63? Yeah, on-road monster and turn it into the ultimate off-roader. What do you think? I love it because right now it's kind of street focused. It cannot be street focused if we buy it. It cannot. So we need to lift it. We need to put some better tires. We have to cover up this bad paint because taking it off-road would be bad because it would scratch up. And then we can actually turn this thing into what I think is the ultimate off-roader. Because look, because it used to be a military vehicle, right? It used to be a military vehicle. Nobody takes G-wagons off-road. But we can. But that's what TFL does, right? Yes. Yeah. And we can compare it to some of the other off-roaders that we have. So I think there's a. But I have a question. Yeah. Because G-wagon has also been a dream of mine, you know, over the years, maybe 20 years. But they're always untouchable as far as price. So are you going to unveil it now? How much do we pay for it? Yes. How about this? Why don't you take it for a ride? Okay. And then I'm going to go pay for it. Okay. And then when I get back, I'll tell you how much we paid for an eight-year-old G-wagon with 83,000 miles on it. Eight-year-old. Okay. Well, yeah. Okay. 2016. All righty. Let's do it. Whoa. This is the first time I see this thing. And wow. Okay. 2016 G63. Oh, the screen is kind of small, but that's okay. We have two keys. They're pretty hefty. Everything about this 4x4 is distinct. Interesting. And it also brings up probably mixed feelings for a lot of people. So let us know in the comments below what feelings this particular G-wagon is bringing for you. Wow. It just jumped to life. So this, I'll show you around. And when Roman is back, we'll show you around more. It's a five and a half liter twin turbo V8 over 560 horsepower. It's kind of a cold day. So it's warming up. I'm comfy. I have a lot of headroom. I've driven the G-wagon squared when we had it on loan at the office. And that was a newer generation, a little bit slightly larger. This is still an older generation. And this is, I think, the only way we can afford something like this at CFL Studios. All right, let me put it in drive. Pretty easy. Oh, it's got such a cool sound. Almost 88,000 miles. So actually for an eight-year-old vehicle, that's not too bad. That's what, about 10,000 miles a year. A lot of people don't like when a vehicle is born as one thing and then it morphs into something else. Hummer H2 had kind of the same feeling because this used to be a military vehicle with a small diesel engine. Now it has a twin turbo V8 gas engine, which is really fast. Wow. Yeah, I can't even, you know, it's very easy to go fast in this one. And then, of course, it morphed into something else, became luxurious, became very, very expensive. So I can't wait to learn how much Roman found this for and how much he's going to pay. Wow. And of course, we have three very, very cool buttons. Triple locked. So you have center, rear and front locking differentials. So you can really have perfect traction where every wheel is getting equal amount of power. So you can really go through obstacles and really kind of tackle it as well. You know, the whole thing about the G-Wagon that I've always known, if driving a couple of them before as well, is that they feel like a solid piece of metal. It just feels like a vault. And even to the way that the door sounds when it opens and closes. Yeah, solid like a vault. These cars are famous for that. It's like, it's like this vault-like feeling and a very solid feeling. Nothing is shaking. It feels, you know what it feels like? It kind of feels like a Land Cruiser, a traditional Land Cruiser, like a 200 series. Oh, and I have a camera up high. I'm looking at my tire, my spare tire in the back. I love when it says V8 Biturbo. That's when you know there's something special underneath. Let's see. Oh, that's a lot of engine. And of course, this is AMG. It says handcrafted by Emim Joylu. I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name, but AMG, of course, you know, has the engine builders actually sign the nameplates on their engines. And what, over 560 horsepower? And look, there's almost no space anywhere around this engine. I mean, it's really shoehorned in here. I mean, it's really, really loaded up in there. Mercedes-Benz oil recommended. So it's a very specific vehicle. Of course, it needs special care. And it's also this kind of matte black color. But I actually like, I usually don't like chrome, but this chrome push bar here kind of sets it off a little bit. You could see all kinds of radiators. There's a radiator here on the side, inside, of course, in the middle. And the headlamps kind of look like eyes. It has like a particular face to it. The mirrors, the mirrors are not squared off. They're a little bit more shaped, but everything else got straight angles. I think that's why I kind of was always drawn to this thing. It's because it's like, it's like a box. It's like something I would draw like in high school or middle school, just drawing like a perfect, like off-road shape for an off-road SUV. And the pipes, the pipes come out here, straight out on the side. So if you're getting into this, you shouldn't, you don't want to put your leg too close. It will bite. I want to see if it has a hitch. Let me see. Oh yeah, it does. Does have a hitch. It does have seven pin trailer wiring. So potentially, I'm not exactly sure what the tow rating is on this one, but we could maybe pull a trailer with it, go off-road. Alex, look, I can get in. There's so much space here. It's really boxy. It's really roomy. It's not very big on the outside, but on the inside, it's quite large, quite roomy. Well, it used to kind of meant for the military, meant for carrying troops, cargo, etc. And now it became a luxury vehicle that nobody ever takes off-road, but we will. All right, Roman, did you sign the paperwork? Andre, we now own a G63 AMG G-Wagon, and we bought it here from a little ma and pa dealership called Green State Motors in Aurora. Very cool. These guys were great to work with. You know, I did the paperwork in 15 minutes, and just the joy. And the reason I bought this, there's a couple reasons. First and foremost, if you look here, this is a Carfax, and you'll note that this was a one-owner, and look at all the service done to it. Just pages and pages of service. Wait, there is like 20 pages. Yeah, exactly. One-owner car. Holy cow. I see it's a Florida. Was this Florida-based car? I'm not in love with buying Florida cars, because they can rust. Hurricanes? They have hurricanes, but I don't think this one was in a hurricane, and there is extensive service history on it. And no damage reported? Minor damage reported. Oh, which kind of damage? Oh, the back. Something happened to the back, but I didn't see it. So it was fixed? I think it was fixed, yeah. And in terms of how much I paid for it, now depending on how you look at this, right, it's either a bargain or it's way too much. So which way would you rather have me talk to you about this? I want to talk in terms of a dream, right, because they're always too expensive, but this is a used one. So new, this would have probably been with the Desinio matte paint, the Desinio interior, right, probably in the $170,000 region when it was new. $170,000? Somewhere in there, yeah, because they were like $140,000 starting. Okay. So I got it for $58,000. 58 grand? With over 80,000 miles. Well, here's another way to look at this. For 58 grand, you probably couldn't buy a brand new Bronco Raptor. But I could buy a Bronco. You could buy a Bronco. I could buy a Bronco. You couldn't buy a Jeep Wrangler 382. Yeah. But you could buy a Jeep Wrangler. Right. But this is 560-something horsepower? Of German liability. And three lockers. And three lockers. So it really depends on, you know, on your point of view. It's either, you know, a dream that's affordable. Or something. Or it's an expense that'll eat us up alive. Liability. It could go either way. But the other thing I liked about it is the husband and wife who own this dealership, they use this as their own vehicle for the last year. So they've been driving it. That's why it smells a little perfumey in there. So they love it. They loved it. Well, yeah, they didn't just buy it from an auction and then flip it. But they actually had it. And he was nice. He said he actually changed out the wipers. So we've got nice wipers, which is always the first thing I got to do. But, you know, we need to change out the tires. Okay. Give it a little bit of a lift. Wrap it. Make it a little bit more off-road worthy. So you want to go for a ride? Let's do it. All right. Roman, before you drive, I want to ask you about this. Why does it have a basketball hoop on my side here? Yeah. Is it for ballers, Roman? No, this is the world's worst cup holder you're looking at. So the G-Wagon, especially this generation, right? Yeah. It's full of compromises. So you'll note that we're sitting very close. But there's tons of headroom space. There's tons of headroom. The center of gravity is way up in the air. But what they basically did was to compete with companies like Land Rover and the Range Rover, right? They took what was essentially an old military vehicle and then made it as luxurious as possible. Now, the reason I wanted a 2016 is that they upped the horsepower for 2016. They also, in the past models, there was wood here. There was wood here. Horrible. This is carbon fiber. This is carbon fiber. And then, of course, you've got every, you know, luxurious feature. Oh, wow. We have a Mercedes-Benz owner's manual. Yeah, I love that. Okay. So you've got every luxurious feature that Mercedes could stuff into a car. Because when you think about it, back in 2016, right, this would have been the most expensive car on the Mercedes-Benz lot. It would have been. Yeah. The A63. A 65 would have been more. A 65 would have been more. But those are so rare. Yes. You know, I can't think of anything that would have cost more unless you had like a six by six version. Maybe like an old Maybach, but they didn't build very many Maybachs, I think. True that. It was before that. I forgot about the Maybach. That was before that. And then, you know, if I had been smart, the one I would have gotten would have been, you know, the 55 because that would have been. Or 550 or 500. Yeah, because 500s were older models. But the 550 is the more easily, like, converted to a pure off-roader because this has 20s, right? You want as much sidewall as possible. So the biggest tire, you could, the biggest wheel you could put on this is 19s because it does have big brakes. AMG brakes. Yeah. And it's also very low on ground clearance. So we're looking at like almost eight inches of ground clearance, which is nowhere near now. That's a sunroof? Yeah. Oh, wow. I think that stopped working somewhere along the way. Okay. That's cool. Yeah, it's a sunroof. But it's not like see-through. It's carpeted. Yeah, I'll leave it like that. That's nice. Alcantara. Look at that. Alcantara everywhere. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Never smoked in. That's, that's key for me. Never smoked in. And then, of course, the most important thing besides that, you know, raucous German V8 is this, this, this and that. Low range and three lockers. Yeah, center, rear and front lockers. Yes. And I tried them before I bought it. They do work. Okay. But, you know, ergonomically, this thing is a little tight. But in the trunk, I was already sitting in the trunk area. The trunk is huge. The trunk is huge. The rear cargo section is humongous. Look, this car is built to go off road. It's great in a straight line. It's not so good around a curve, right? This is definitely a little compromise when it comes to passenger comfort, when it comes to, you know, canyon carving. But we don't care about any of that. No, we care about it as an off-roader. And there is something that no other vehicle in the world has. And you can feel it the second you get into it, right? It's this, I'm going to use a cliche, but it's this vault like. That's the term I also use that term. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing else, nothing else that feels and drives like a G-Wagon because there's nothing else that's built like it. This is, this will be the car that at the end of the world will still be sitting around, you know, still be drivable. And still drive the same. Yeah. When it's old versus when it's new. And what's great about the 63 is, of course, zero to 60 in the four second range, right? Well, we need to drag race it, I think. I think we definitely need to drag race it. And it's not that old. So we're looking at a seven speed automatic, you know, which is good. Okay. And as you know, you recently bought a new vehicle. I did. Do you recall what your fuel economy is? Um, my, well, I don't know when this video publishes, but my economy in my truck, I recently purchased. Which is what? 13 city, 17 highway. In a 2019. Tundra TRD Pro. Yes. 13 in this as well. Oh, we got identical. It's the same. Okay. Okay. It's great. We got identical fuel economy. Okay. But you have more power. My Tundra doesn't have 560. Three horsepower. No. Three horsepower. I've got more turbos too. But I do have finally the car that I've dreamed of having, you know, for the last eight years. And I gotta tell you, I couldn't be happier about it. And now, of course, the thing I'm dreading is when does the other shoe drop, right? When am I going to hear some rattle or feel something? When does the check engine light come on? Exactly. That's the fear. That's the question. Because, you know, I said this could be a bargain or this could be a liability. Yes. It could be. You could look upon it, you know, either way, depending on, you know, what condition this thing's in. And 87,000 miles is getting up there. It is. But it's not 100,000. No. No. And it is hopefully, you know, a one-owner car that's been taken care of. So I'm hanging my hat on that, Andre. Okay. Hey, boys. What do you think? What a happy day. Our new G-Wagon, huh? I like it. All right. Now, don't expect too much, okay? It's a little creaky. It's got some miles, but it's a perfect G-Wagon. Okay. Almost perfect if it wasn't the 63 to take off-road. Yeah. If it was perfect, we wouldn't want to take it off-road. Right. So let's see in this first video if it's any good off-road. Now, we do have street tires, which will change out. Yeah, we got to fix that. But we do have three lockers and we do have a low range. Yeah. So we're going to run it through the Onyx Off-Road to Andre's pit course, and let's do our first initial shakedown. Now, Case, actually, I think more than anyone at the TFL headquarters has a love of the G. Yeah. My family had one of these back in the day as a family car. It was actually the first thing that I ever drove alone with my full-on driver's license. What a cool story. What a cool car. And I also love the Gs, but to be honest with you, I've never spent much time with them because when we do get them at the office or for such a short period, my dad monopolizes them because he loves them. Yeah. And they're too expensive to really take off-road. So this is kind of one of my first times actually in the dirt in a G-Wagon. And these cars do hold value really well. So even this one having some miles and some wear on it is, you know, it's not a cheap vehicle by any means, but I think it's a good one to use as something to build into a little bit of a light trail vehicle. A hundred percent. Yeah. So we're going to look into some tires, maybe some rocker protection, right? Case and see what these are really like and see if they are worthy of the cred that so many people put on them. Now, the cool thing about this older generation G-Wagon, you know, my favorite thing. What the V8 solid axle. Yeah, there you go. That's right. So just like what a Wrangler, a power wagon, a CJ, these have a stick front axle in the front, which is great for lifting them, should be great for articulation. So let's see what it's like putting this into four wheel drive low. So there's neutral. I don't actually know where the low range is. I'm pointing right at that. See if that works low range on. And then let's go ahead and lock the center. So these are actually numbered case. I didn't know that. Yep. So center first. So now we're going to lock into basically four wheel drive. This is a full time system. Yeah. So that's a 50 50 split between the front and rear axles. But once we start to slip and we won't use it until it's actually necessary, then we can kick on our rear and our front lockers. So we just dug out the pit a little bit and you definitely feel it. So we're going to accelerate nice and slow. All right. So that's two wheels spinning right now. So the right front and the left rear. Yeah. Should we try a rear locker? Number two. Let's see. Let's see if that actually works. Oh, boy. Oh, look at how easy that is. He's one thing which I don't think I realized on camera looking at these things is just how narrow these are. Funny enough, these are actually narrower than a Ford Focus. Are they really? Yeah. The old ones, not the new ones, the new generation, they made wider. So it's a better handling car. But this one is pretty narrow, especially for how tall it is. We're two foot it. Dad, tell us if we're going to scrape on anything. You should hear that. It's OK. OK. Here, I'm going to just for giggles because we have it. The pipes. Nice. It'll blow the dirt away. One of the things which is a little weird about this coming from the Jeep world is all that torque. Well, it's got good articulation. It's working pretty good. Yeah. Even without the front locker on, it's good stuff. Gonna love solid axles, Tommy. Just climbing. That's pretty sweet. That is pretty cool. Just hearing that rumble. Yeah. With that window open. And credit to it again, it's really having no slip at all. Not that our trenches are the most difficult obstacle to climb up in the world, but we've seen plenty of things with only a rear locker still struggle a little bit going up that. And this is not that situation. 100 percent. There we go. So I think the yellow means it's working and maybe red is on. Maybe you got to go reverse. I'm sure it works. My dad. There it goes. Now we got three lockers. So, yeah. So obviously, like he said, not a super challenging test, but out of the box. Pretty amazing. Yeah. And just fun initially to see a little bit of the capability. Next up is going to be actually bringing this on a real trail, eventually to Moab as well. Get some more tire on it. Boom. Super stoked. All right. So do we have three working lockers? Yes. I mean, this started out as an off-roader and at some point Mercedes luxurified it. What's the word? Kardashian did. Kardashian did. So let's un-Kardashian it. Let's make it an off-roader again and let's have fun. And then let's take it to Moab and see if this indeed is the ultimate off-roader, which some people say it is. Good plan. Good plan. Well, guys, let us know what you want to see with the G-Wagon. Head over to altifail.com for more videos. Let's hope it doesn't break. It will. I'm sure it will. It'll break.