2019 mercedes-benz g-class

this is the brand new fully redesigned

2019 mercedes-benz

g-class and it is the coolest new suv on

sale the g-wagon first went on sale in

the united states back in 2002

more than 15 years ago and this is the

first time that it's been redesigned

since then today i'm going to take you

on a comprehensive tour of the new

g-wagon

[Music]

i've borrowed this new g-wagon from

fletcher jones motor cars here in

newport beach california fletcher jones

is the largest mercedes-benz dealership

in north america and they always get the

first the best and the coolest of

everything the new g-wagon has just gone

on sale and it's no surprise that

fletcher jones has one of the first

models on dealership lots because they

sell more g-wagons than any dealership

in north america so what makes the g so

cool well there are a couple of factors

that play a role in my opinion one is

the fact that this is the flagship suv

from mercedes-benz so it's the most

desirable vehicle from one of the most

desirable luxury brands and that's why

it carries such a huge sticker price

these things start at around 125

thousand dollars before options and

options are plentiful then there is the

celebrity factor just about every cool

celebrity is driving around hollywood in

one of these looking cool and so if you

get one then you could look cool also

there's also the boxy design which

everyone loves in which they've kept

largely unchanged from the previous

model even though this is a totally

redesigned car and then there are the

g-wagons immense capabilities this thing

can basically go anywhere and do

anything it isn't just one of the most

desirable luxury suvs but also one of

the most capable off-road suvs which

only adds to its allure anyway about a

year ago i made a video where i

complained bitterly about many of the

problems and drawbacks and issues of the

old g-wagon the outgoing model so today

i'm going to take you on a tour of this

one and i'm going to see if they've

addressed my complaints and if they have

how they've done it then i'm going to

show you around the rest of the

interesting quirks and cool features of

the new g-wagon then i'm going to get it

out on the road and drive it and then

i'm going to give it a dug score and for

more of my thoughts on the new g-wagon

click the link below to visit

autotrader.com oversteer where i've also

rounded up a list of the most capable

used luxury suvs currently listed for

sale on autotrader

all right i'm going to start the quirks

and features by going through my

complaints with the old g-wagon to see

if they've fixed them and one of the

biggest and most memorable complaints i

had was the fact that even with the

doors closed you could look into the

panel gaps and see the warning labels

which just looked unprofessional and

terrible this one they have addressed

the panel gaps are a lot smaller than

they used to be and when you look in

there you can't see the ugly warning

labels another big complaint i had with

the old g-wagon related to the front

turn signal and the front reflector the

turn signal i made fun of because it had

these two screws in and it just looked

stupid it looked like they just screwed

it in right before you picked up the car

that one they've addressed also they

have taken the screws out and the turn

signal looks a lot more modern better is

the reflector not only did i complain

that it had stupid screws in it but it

looked like they had just tacked it on

as an afterthought which of course they

had well now the reflector no longer has

the stupid screws and it's been

integrated into the side molding which

looks a lot better two more complaints

addressed i also complained about the

rear reflector in the old g-wagon once

again it had two stupid ugly screws in

it and it looked like they had just

stuck it on there as an afterthought

once again the rear reflector has been

integrated into the side molding the

screws are gone and it looks a lot

better but the majority of my complaints

about the exterior of the old g wagon

centered around the rear of the car

starting with the backup camera which

was just absurd mercedes-benz had again

tacked it on as an afterthought as the

car evolved over 30 years of production

and they stuck it at the very top above

the window which not only looked stupid

but when you put the car in reverse you

saw a tire taking up like a third of

your backup camera screen it was just

terrible mercedes-benz has again fixed

that complaint the new backup camera is

below the spare tire where it should be

and it's hidden in place until you

actually shift the car into reverse at

which point it pops out and that

preserves the look of the car when the

backup camera is not on instead of being

just plunked up there always looking

stupid and speaking of stuff that was

just tacked on the old g-wagon as an

afterthought i had a similar complaint

about the rear wiper when the g-wagon

first came out in the 70s as a military

vehicle and they didn't need a rear

wiper but over time it became a luxury

suv they had to add one and it looked

really ugly just sitting there in the

middle of the back and the rear window

once again this is another complaint of

mine that mercedes benz has fixed the

rear wiper has been moved to behind the

spare tire meaning that you don't see it

when you look at the back of the car

it's hidden there unless it's actually

on which makes the back of the car look

a lot nicer i also complained about two

other items in the back that looked

similarly stupid one was the third brake

light which had been stuck inside the

rear door clearly to comply with

regulations from 20 years ago and then

they just left it there looking stupid

now the third brake light has been

integrated into the whole design the

back of the car and it looks a lot

better right above the rear window it

looks like it's supposed to be there

same thing for the rear washer there's a

rear window washer back here and on the

old ones it was over on the side and it

was a very obvious ugly thing on the new

g-wagon the rear washer still sticks out

a little bit but it's integrated into

the third brake light housing and it

just generally looks a lot better than

the old one which was a little more

obvious and in a little stranger of a

place next up moving on to the inside

another one of my complaints with the

old g-wagon was the crazy fun house

mirror windows they stuck straight up

and so they basically reflected whatever

you were seeing on one side

over on the other side this time the

windows have a little bit of arc to them

and so that terrifying aspect of the

driving experience from the old g-wagon

has largely been removed from the new

one although you still get some

reflections but it's nowhere near as bad

as it used to be another big complaint i

had with the outgoing g wagon was the

interior packaging which was just

laughable because the design was so old

it was designed at a different time cars

were simply smaller and the old g wagon

was only 71.8 inches wide the new one

even though it looks fairly similar to

the old one is 78 inches wide and all of

that extra width has translated to more

interior room and more space for

amenities the best example of that is

the cup holders and the old one they

didn't have room for cup holders in the

center console and so they just stuck

this ridiculous basketball hoop looking

cup holder in the passenger footwell it

was absurd and totally unbecoming a car

that's this valuable the new g-wagon has

two cup holders right in the middle just

like you'd expect from a normal car and

another big and welcome change is the

parking brake you no longer have a

manual lever that you pull like a 1970s

suv that you're taking into the back

woods instead this car has an automatic

electronic parking brake that's over to

the left of the steering wheel and the

benefit of this is obvious even if you

don't like electronic parking brakes it

definitely frees up space in the middle

of the interior where you can put stuff

like cupholders and where you can put

the controls for the infotainment system

and just generally moving the parking

brake allows you to give a little bit

more hip room legroom knee room to the

people sitting in the front another

complaint i had with the old one is the

fact that there was a warning label

printed on the inside of the windshield

telling you i don't remember not to do

something or something it looked really

stupid the point is it's gone the new

one no longer has its beautiful interior

broken up by an ugly warning labeled

decal stuck to the inside of the front

windshield another thing i thought was

absolutely ridiculous in the outgoing

g-wagon was the rear cup holders the

only cup holders in the back seats were

in this plastic flimsy piece that you

could remove and i referred to it as the

single crappiest interior item in any

230 dollar car when i reviewed the g65

last year fortunately mercedes-benz has

ditched that terrible flimsy cup holder

piece instead there are two cup holders

in the center armrest just like in most

luxury cars and they're reasonably nice

enough just like in most luxury cars

other complaints of mine that

mercedes-benz addressed regarding flimsy

or crappy interior materials the glove

box and the old g-wagon looked like the

kind of thing you'd get in the 1970s era

military vehicle that it was it was

plastic you folded it down and there

were these crappy little cutouts for

drinks where you would like put your

canteen when you were out in battle

finally the glove box and the new g

wagon is normal and it looks like a

glove box that you would get in a

rational automobile another complaint i

had centered around this piece of

leather that mercedes-benz put above the

steering column to shield you from the

fact that the steering column went into

the dashboard and actually controlled

the wheels anyway that stuff is all gone

now the steering column meets the

screens in a normal place and they don't

have to hide any inner workings with a

little leather flap another complaint i

had with the old g's interior was the

blank switches that you could spend 230

grand for the top of the line g65 i

reviewed and still get blank switches in

the middle that stuff is also gone

credit to mercedes-benz no more center

blank switches in this car it looks like

you checked every option box and that

makes you just feel a little better now

next up i'm going to move on to some of

my complaints with the old g wagon that

mercedes-benz did not address or fix

with the new one and the most obvious is

the exposed door hinges now i talked in

my old review about how the exposed door

hinges don't need to be there and i

still think the car would look better if

they were just flush and you couldn't

see them but when i complained about

that in my old review i got hundreds of

comments from people saying the exposed

hinges look cool they make it look

utilitarian and off rotary and they have

to stay

and mercedes-benz focus groups must have

told them the same thing because even

the new g-wagon still has the exposed

door hinges another feature that

mercedes-benz didn't add to the g-wagon

despite my complaints is you still don't

have keyless access in basically every

other luxury car you can just walk right

up to the car with the key in your

pocket tap the door handle it unlocks

and then you get in in the g wagon you

still have to take your key out of your

pocket and press the unlock button

although the reason i'm told that they

couldn't integrate keyless access is

because of the door locks this car has

one of the great door latch sounds in

the entire car industry and it always

has they've preserved that take a listen

now apparently in order to preserve that

wonderful satisfying click when you shut

the doors of the g wagon they couldn't

integrate the keyless access system like

in other mercedes-benz models and so you

had to have one or the other and frankly

i would rather have the door click they

made the right choice another item i

complained about in my review of the old

g-wagon was the rear door it is massive

it is unwieldy it is too heavy and it is

not power operated in the new g-wagon

the rear door is massive unwieldy too

heavy and not power operated it seems

that mercedes-benz wants the car to have

this characteristic look in back and the

easiest way to do that is with this rear

door and not an actual tailgate and so

this is what you get they still can't

figure out a way to make this power

operated so you still have the giant

rear door back to the interior a couple

complaints they didn't address in here

one is the grab handle which i think is

just ridiculous because people drive

these around beverly hills and newport

beach and miami and they don't need a

grab handle for off-roading but

mercedes-benz didn't get rid of it and i

admit you know this is an off-roader suv

still and so for the nine people who are

gonna take it off-roading a grab handle

might be nice plus it adds some

credibility to its off-road capabilities

and so they kept the grab handle i can

cut them some slack for that one thing i

can't cut them some slack for and that i

still really don't like is the placement

of the power window switches on the

driver's door panel it's at the very top

directly next to the window and so if

you even lower the window a couple

inches in a slight rainstorm with like a

little mist it's going to leak down onto

your window switches and that's annoying

sometimes you want to have the window

down and there's just a little bit of

moisture and with this car you can't do

it it's bad placement and they should

have changed it finally we move on to a

complaint that i don't think

mercedes-benz is ever going to be able

to address and that would be

the fuel economy of this vehicle now in

my last video i reviewed the top model

of the old g wagon with a v12 and it got

11 miles per gallon city and 13 highway

okay this is the new g-wagon the base

model with the smallest engine a v8 and

it gets 13 city and 17 highway there's

just not all that much you can do when

the car is as boxy and unaerodynamic

as this vehicle is now it's worth noting

that the new g-wagon uses the same

engine as the outgoing model which is a

4 liter turbocharged v8 that makes 416

horsepower the difference is the

transmission the old one used a 7-speed

automatic the new one uses a 9-speed

which ideally would help a little bit

with fuel economy but it hasn't really

seemed to do much but anyway that's

basically all of the complaints i had

with the old g wagon and all of

mercedes-benz solutions and frankly they

fixed almost everything i complained

about so anyway moving on to the other

quirks and features of the new g wagon i

want to start with the headlights this

is an easy way you can tell apart the

new g from the old one the old g had

this led light strip underneath the

headlights the new one ditches that for

this modern looking circle around the

headlights which has a very nice look to

it and moving around back to the tail

lights they've also been heavily

modernized compared to the old g-wagon

the old ones tail lights were basically

the same for years they just kind of got

updated here and there but this one has

an all new tail light unit it's larger

than before full led strangely enough

when you put on the turn signal in the

new one it just lights up in red the

full tail light rather than having like

an orange portion of the turn signal

like the old one and like most cars have

next up one other item i want to talk

about on the outside of the g-wagon

before we move inside for those quirks

and features i want to talk about the

general styling of this vehicle you take

a look at this thing and it looks like

the old g-wagon which everybody loved it

just addresses a lot of the flaws of the

old g-wagon which everybody hated but

they were able to modernize it and

change all of those things without

ruining the look of this car they

basically kept what people liked the

appearance and ditched everything they

didn't this should be a model for

automakers who are modernizing their

iconic designs

land rover defender i'm looking at you

if land rover was smart at all they

would do exactly this with the new

defender keep the design everybody loves

but just change all of the terrible

stuff that everybody hates i don't think

that is what land rover is going to do

with the new defender but mercedes-benz

has masterfully pulled it off with the

new g-wagon and i suspect they will have

great success with this car as a result

next up we move on to the interior of

the new g-wagon which of course has

quite a few interesting quirks and

features now once you're inside and the

door is closed it isn't immediately

obvious how to open it again they've

integrated the door handle pull into the

door panel in a way that doesn't make it

incredibly obvious but you pull on this

little silver thing and then you're out

now one interesting item because

mercedes-benz kept the old-school door

latches you also have the old school

door lock sound which is incredibly loud

you press lock or unlock on the door and

this beautiful button and then you hear

that's got to be the loudest door lock

sound in the industry but people like

that sound again it makes them feel like

they've just accomplished something by

locking the doors way cooler than just

an electronic lock in most modern cars

another thing that i'm glad they kept

from the old g wagon next up moving on

to the glove box one interesting item in

there is there are coin holders a lot of

cars have coin holders but the g wagon

has twice as many coin holders as i've

ever seen in any other car two rows of

coin holders which makes sense when you

think about it because g-wagon owners

have more coins than the rest of us you

know what i'm saying another interesting

item in the interior this car has your

typical three locking differentials just

like always better than basically any

other car from the factory if you really

want to go deep into the wilderness and

it has low range gearing now in older

cars low range was like a lever you had

to pull really hard and this thing it's

just a little button next to the parking

cameras you press it and you're in low

range and then you could go a little

further into the wilderness next we move

on to the back seat of the new g-wagon

which has some improvements over the old

one starting with the fact that in the

old g wagon i made fun of it because it

didn't really have any climate controls

there was no screen back here you were

just kind of stuck with whatever air

came out the center tunnel well

obviously they've responded to that now

there is a screen and climate controls

you can adjust the temperature and the

air flow with these two little sliders

simple enough just like you'd expect in

a luxury car at this price point the

back of the new g-wagon has also been

refined in other ways for example if you

open this little compartment underneath

the climate controls you will see there

is now a usb port which adds some

convenience for your rear passengers and

the child seat latches are a lot more

available and visible than they were in

the old one so you can stick a child

seat in the back of your g-wagon and

next we move on to the cargo area of the

new g-wagon which frankly is just like

the cargo area and the old g-wagon

nothing particularly special back here

and back up to the front of the new

g-wagon where i want to talk technology

for a minute now the new g-wagon is

vastly improved on technology compared

to its predecessor it has way more

features and equipment but there are

still a few disappointments one is the

fact still no panoramic sunroof in the g

wagon that one i don't understand the

car has a flat roof how hard could it be

to just make a giant sunroof on this

thing but for some reason it's not

available or at least not yet but the

other technology in this car is

fantastic now i've already gone through

this new mercedes-benz infotainment

system in my review of the new

wagon which i'll link below i'm still

going to cover a few of the highlights

one is the gauge cluster screen which

can be configured in a wide variety of

different ways using the little touch

pads on the steering wheel the other

screen is the center infotainment screen

which has a wide range of functions

starting with the navigation system it's

a massive navigation map a huge screen

you can zoom in and out and see where

you are and use it as the navigation

system since that's what it is now like

i said i've already covered the main

features of the infotainment system in

the e63 review but there are a couple of

interesting quirks i noticed inside the

infotainment screen

starting with sports alerts now in most

modern cars with siriusxm satellite

radio you can set the radio to let you

know when your favorite artist or your

favorite song is playing and it'll give

you an alert letting you know in this

car you can also set an alert to let you

know when your favorite sports team is

playing and when they're on some channel

on xm radio and it will give you an

alert and let you know and that's

incredible and if you go into the sports

alerts you can see you can choose

between a wide variety of leagues you

have college football college basketball

major league baseball nhl nfl etc you

also have women's college basketball so

you can click on it and then you are

presented with an unbelievably long list

of women's college basketball teams and

there are some rather interesting ones

on this list for example presbyterian is

the blue hose i went to presbyterian oh

yeah what's her nickname the blue hose

the blue

what oh the blue hose like garden hose

oh

oh

got it another interesting item in this

car is that it gives you the ability to

set the tone for the parking sensors and

as you do that you can play yourself a

nice little parking sensors tone song

take a listen

[Music]

now a lot of cars will let you play that

little tone with the parking sensors but

one feature i especially like in the g

wagon is it gives you a parking sensors

early warning feature that you can turn

on basically what this means is you can

set it like a normal person the parking

sensors will go off at a normal distance

or

if you're not very good at parking you

can set them to go off a little early

you know who you are

and i guarantee that you

will turn on the early feature and so

that's a look around the new 2019

g-class which is a huge improvement over

the old one as you can see now it's time

to get it out on the road and see if the

driving experience is a huge improvement

as well driving the new g-wagon

now this is a pretty important thing the

old g-wagon was in fact the oldest car

on the market it came out back in 2002

it came out in foreign countries even

before that and today finally

we've moved on to the next generation

the first thing you notice the moment

you get inside this car is that there's

just dramatically more space than in the

old one even though this car looks about

the same

size from the outside the appearance is

almost identical to the old one

they've actually widened everything

including the cabin and so the interior

there's a lot more space and the second

thing you notice is just how much more

modern it is inside this car than the

old one the old one they did a great job

of modernizing it and adding all the new

tech but you could tell where they just

tucked on this and stuck in that and you

know you'd have a brand new infotainment

controller next to a parking brake from

the 70s and now finally by being able to

do like a ground-up redesign everything

is sort of where it should be all right

first thing you notice just going around

a little corner they've addressed the

biggest complaint with the with my

biggest complaint with the old one which

is the steering in my opinion the

steering the old g-wagon was just

a handful you sort of turn it halfway

and not much happened then you turn it

more a lot happened it was just not

linear and bad

uh the the answer is it's just it's

dramatically improved as you would hope

and as you would expect it's now as it

should be in terms of the solid kind of

bank vault feel of the old car it's

definitely been modernized more than

that part of that solid feel came from

that steering that was

kind of difficult and heavy um the

steering is lightened and so you don't

quite have the same solidity king of the

road driving feel was one of the coolest

things about the old g-wagon and that

has been preserved just like with a lot

of the stuff i showed you before the

good stuff has been capped and the bad

stuff has been jettisoned and so the one

of the greatest things about this car

was the way you felt driving it you felt

like you owned the road you're looking

out over this you could tell you're in

this boxy mercedes truck like you're

just the coolest person and you it still

feels that way and you still have the

three diff lockers in the middle so you

know that if you want to i could just

make a turn and drive over whatever i

wanted to it is dramatically

an improvement over the old one which is

great because it still looks like the

old one everybody loved how the old one

looked but now finally

it actually drives and feels like a like

a the type of luxury car that you would

expect it to be considering the price

point these things are going to get all

over the place fast because finally you

don't really have to make any

compromises in order to have this car

you can now drive the g-wagon and get

the cool boxy styling on the ultimate

mercedes truck and you actually get the

technology and the driving feel and

stuff of a range rover and

it's hard to

argue against that you know a lot of

people don't like this thing oh the

celebrities drive at the kardashians oh

it's overkill but

it's the coolest try it just is that's

just kind of the reality of the g wagon

and finally now it's like one of the

nicest too and so that's the 2019

mercedes-benz

g550 i can't tell you how hard this

review was to schedule because fletcher

jones is selling these things as soon as

they come in sometimes within a few

hours of delivery to the dealership

they're just that hot you may not like

the g-wagon because of its styling or

because of its cost or because of its

celebrity image but it is the coolest

new suv on the market and now it's time

to give it a dug score starting with the

weekend categories and styling the g is

gorgeous and that's all there is to it

and it still looks great even with all

the changes from before and it gets a 7

out of 10. acceleration does 0 to 60 in

5.6 seconds and it gets a 4 out of 10.

handling is so vastly improved over the

old one it's still light and vague but

not horrible and dangerous like before

and it gets a 4 out of 10. fun factor is

higher than most luxury suvs because

it's so capable off-road if you actually

want to use it there and it gets a 5 out

of 10. cool factor is high these still

turn heads and it gets a 6 out of 10 for

a total weekend score of 26 out of 50.

more important are the daily scores

features the g550 is shockingly well

equipped but with no keyless go no

panoramic sunroof no power tailgate and

some other misses it falls behind

segment leaders like the new lincoln

navigator and the latest range rover and

it only gets a 7 out of 10. comfort is

excellent and i'm shocked to say this

but it's on par with the best in class

and it gets an 8 out of 10. quality is

good the interior is nice and aside from

the occasional old-school design feature

and the usual mercedes reliability

concerns it's excellent and it gets a 7

out of 10. practicality is excellent

with lots of cargo space and it gets a 9

out of 10. finally value these have

historically held their value

tremendously well but they're now way

more expensive than before i'm curious

how depreciation will go but for now

this one gets a 6 out of 10 for a total

daily score of 37 out of 50. add it up

and the doug score is 63 out of 100 and

this is one of those cases where the

doug score is highly relevant because

i've tested all the competition and i'm

just gonna say it the new g wagon is

better than the new range rover it used

to be that you had to be image obsessed

by the g wagon over the range rover but

now mercedes actually makes the better

suv the g-wagon only loses to the ultra

expensive bentley bentayga and rolls

royce cullinan along with some

performance suvs that match the g-wagon

and the daily score and do predictably

better in the weekend score the new g is

an excellent suv

[Music]

you