1985 Mercedes-Benz GE280
en.wikipedia.org
The Mercedes-Benz G-Class or G-Wagen (as it was called from 1979 to 1994), short for Geländewagen (or cross-country vehicle), is a four-wheel drive vehicle / sport utility vehicle (SUV) produced by Steyr-Puch (now Magna Steyr) in Austria for German automaker Mercedes-Benz. The G-wagen is characterized by its boxy styling and body-on-frame construction. It uses three fully locking differentials, one of the few vehicles to have such a feature. Despite the introduction of an intended replacement, the unibody crossover SUV Mercedes-Benz GL-Class in 2006, the G-Class is still in production and is the longest produced Mercedes-Benz in Daimler's history, with a span of 32 years.
The original 460-series Geländewagen went on sale for civilian buyers in 1979, after having debuted in February of that year. It was offered with two wheelbases, a short wheelbase (SWB) of 2,400 mm and a long one (LWB) of 2,850 mm. One could choose between three body styles: A two-door short wheelbase convertible, a two-door SWB wagon and a long wheelbase four-door wagon. The two wagon versions were also available as windowless two-door Vans (or Kastenwagen in German). While always assembled in Graz, the car was sold as the Puch G only in the Austrian, Swiss, and Eastern European markets.[3]
During the G-wagen's life span many a different body style was made for army and public-service clients, like the Popemobile, the pickup or the chassis/cab with a wheelbase of 2,850, 3,120 or 3,400 mm, the chassis/cab being the base vehicle for army-ambulances or communication vehicles. Because of the sheer variety of military versions, this article focuses on the more standardized civilian G-Wagen.
The 460 was popular with military and off-road enthusiasts, with more than 50,000 built in the first decade. Mercedes-Benz initially did not sell the model in the United States, but by means of "casual importation" grey-market in the mid-1980s, importers sold a number of G-Wagens which had been modified to meet the specifications by the US DOT, at about $135,000.
230 GE — M102E23 2.3 L I4, 125 PS (92 kW) at 5,000 rpm, 141 lb•ft (192 N•m/4,000 rpm)