The last time we drove the newest G-Class, it was the 585hp G63 and it was summertime. The flagship was in fine fettle; as mad as a box of objectionable frogs, of course - but easy to like if you weren’t paying for the petrol, nor light £184,595 after buying one in the first place. In previous decades, the G63 was harder to appreciate because its power output alone could not (and did not) make it great to pedal; it was crude and tank-like in ways that extended far beyond its appearance. But the current model adroitly builds on the hard work already done on the second-generation car launched in 2018. Meaning that in the G-Class Venn diagram its squared-off, shouty charm circle now overlaps meaningfully with the one about it being pleasant to drive.
This makes the latest G500 more interesting than it otherwise might have been. Traditionally, any petrol variant beneath the G63 could be dismissed out of hand (or at any rate, that’s what most UK buyers were inclined to do) because they just featured less powerful V8s. But now the G500 gets the mild-hybrid 3.0-litre M256 straight-six - the same one we’ve been raving about in the current CLE 53. Not only does this make the G-wagen the best part of 100kg lighter than the G63 - and significantly less thirsty - it also helps make it substantially cheaper. The G500 starts at £146,095, and even if a £38,500 saving is inconsequential to money-no-object Mercedes-AMG customers, for everyone else it does at least bring the asking price that bit closer to very high-spec Land Rover Defenders.
On top of its on-paper appeal, it was to the G500’s benefit that it turned up at PH’s door just as bleakest mid winter arrived. To call a G-Class imperious in such conditions almost undersells the warm and fuzzy feeling you get from seeing it accumulate snow like an Isthmian League dugout. Of course, it is not alone in radiating a soldierly, go-anywhere skillset, but there is something undeniably successful about the way Mercedes has merged its ’stronger than time’, body-on-frame traditionalism with so much conspicuous 21st-century tech. It’s like discovering your grandad can code. And while PH would deny no one the visceral pleasure of a honking V8 in 2025, it is generally to the G-Class’s benefit that the G500 strips away some of the G63’s cockiness; not just in powertrain or styling terms, but in mindset too.
This factor is noticeable long before you push the start button. No G-Class is subtle to look at, but with the side exit exhausts gone and the wheel size reduced to 20-inch (but appearing smaller thanks to a more generous sidewall), the G500 strikes a more conservative pose. It is less dressed up to the nines inside, too; while still evincing the sort of build quality that would shame an Apple assembly line worker, there isn’t quite so much pillowy leather in the lower-ranked car. Naturally, its digger driver seating position is not for everyone, but the view out, courtesy of the bolt-upright screen and slender A-pillars, is stupendously good. As are the seats themselves. There is no large SUV that’s easier to place on a road, nor one that wards off driver fatigue more effectively.
The second aspect is all the more surprising when you consider all the ways that the G-Class mimics an intercity train carriage. By that I mean the lulling, head-nodding nature of its ladder frame chassis, which can be felt doing its separate thing even at very slow speeds, the distant shimmy moving ever so gently through your hips and neck. Ultimately, at speed, this negates the kind of top-tier body control that most fast SUVs possess by default, but for the rest of the time it seems an integral and likeable point of difference. In fact, thanks to the G500’s obviously softer settings and slightly chubbier tyres, you settle into its meander very contentedly, not least because the car’s relationship with the road seems less transactional than in its hunkered-down rivals. You tend to bob and weave with the surface, pleasantly isolated from it, but never in a way that seems detached or one-dimensional.
It helps that the steering (once upon a time the G-wagen’s glaring weakness) is so authoritative and nicely attuned with the way the G500 changes direction. It is weighty but never cumbersome, and with both hands lashed to it, as credible as a Tom Clancy novel. This is reassuring not just because it makes such a tall, air-bludgeoning car seem surprisingly intuitive (though this would be enough, given how many rivals fall at the same hurdle) but because the G500 is primed to surge forward so enthusiastically given half the chance. Any lingering concern that the subdued soundtrack and a cliff-edge drop from 585hp in the G63 to 449hp might have left the G-Class seeming neutered in comparison is dispelled almost immediately. A second slower to 62mph the G500 may very well be - slow, it is definitely not.
Incredibly, there were in-gear moments at slower speeds where it seemed like the hulking SUV might be briefly superior to the PH Fleet CLE in its capacity to lunge unhesitatingly at the horizon - although even allowing for differences in transmission and throttle map, this can’t possibly be true and is likely a physical factor of the G500’s height and tendency to pitch. Nevertheless, that the thought even occurred is a mark of just how ingratiatingly rapid and untroubled by its weight the car seems when the six-pot hits its mid-range stride - which, thanks to 20hp of instantaneous electrical assistance and the ever-attentive nine-speed automatic, is often. Granted, there is a limit to the sensation; the G500 doesn’t have the unrelenting quality of the G63’s 627lb ft of torque, nor the sensation of it really uncorking at higher revs, but that’s only to be expected.
For the most part, the G500 is the next best thing: plenty fast enough. The car copes manfully without the AMG Active Ride Control system that hydraulically links the G63’s dampers, yet inevitably it cannot corner quite as flat or as tenaciously as the more senior version. Frankly though, unless you’ve been charged with rushing someone to hospital, this doesn’t seem like a tremendous sacrifice. The G63 is great in small, fiery doses, but with no sand dune to crest at 90mph, seldom do you feel like you’re getting the most from its model-specific V8. In the G500, the modest step-down in performance harmonises splendidly with the unhurried and perpetually unruffled chassis, resulting in a simpler, slower, quieter and more consistent G-Class. Better? Not for showing off or being seen in. But for living with and paying six-figures for, yes. Winter or not, this is the G-wagen best suited to Britain.
SPECIFICATION | 2025 MERCEDES G500 AMG Line Premium Plus
Engine: 2999cc inline 6, MHEV, turbo
Transmission: 9-speed auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 449@5,800-6,100rpm (+20hp, MHEV)
Torque (lb ft): 413@2,200-5,000rpm
0-62mph: 5.4 seconds
Top speed: 130mph
Weight: 2,665kg (EU)
MPG: 25.0 (WLTP)
CO2: 289g/km (WLTP)
Price: £146,095 (as tested, £146,945)
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