Test Driving The Mercedes-AMG G 63, The Swabian Ibex Maximus Hot Rod

Forbes

15-04-2025

Mercedes-AMG G 63's 577-horsepower twin-turbo V8 wears the Swabian equivalent of the lake pipes immortalized by the Beach Boys in 'Little Deuce Coupe.' The enormous performance tires and twin exhaust tips popping out under the running boards are obvious indicators that G 63 is an on-road hot rod, no matter that it retains the architecture and much of the off-roading capability of its military relatives.
Unlike its 6-cylinder brother, the G 550, which is an excellent choice to keep at a posh log structure in the Rocky Mountains, G 63 is more an exotic high-performance vehicle than SUV. Think of it as a factory engineered and built restomod.
LET THE LAKE PIPES ROAR!
Differentiation is found under the hood. G 63 possesses that most prized element of the Mercedes-AMG brand: a one-man/one-engine hand-built twin-turbo V8 hooked up to an AMG-sorted Mercedes 9-speed automatic.
With subtle packaging and calibration differences, it's essentially the same 577-horsepower engine found in AMG's high-performance GT and SL, as fine as any V8 offered. You can find more radical V8s, more powerful V8s, even from AMG, but you won't find one that's better.
SUPPLEMENTAL ELECTRIC TORQUE
For 2025, the 48-volt starter-generator electric motor located in the forestock of the 9-speed transmission can add a significant 184 lb. ft. of torque at low speeds for short bursts. Torque grand total is 627 lb. ft. The motor gives an instant-on boost of pure electric torque during launch. Compared to the 2024 G 63, that electric boost cuts the sprint to 60 mph by 0.3 seconds, to 4.2 seconds…no mean feat considering G 63 weighs just shy of three tons. It's still a war wagon, tailored for urban combat.
Sure, exotic GTs and sports cars that do the deed in 3 seconds or less deliver a more powerful emotional experience, a nearly surreal experience in some of those low-slung rigs. But doing it while seated so high and upright, perceiving the violent rush, the blurring of the periphery through a huge nearly flat windscreen instead of an exotic car's mail slot is without doubt a unique experience in the world. That you can sense the all-wheel drive apportioning power to the individual wheels with the best grip, the Geländewagen feeling absolutely alive, pouncing like a cartoon cat, well, that is truly an experience.
POINT IT AND PUNCH IT
As a child working stopwatches at Vintage Auto Racing Association events at Willow Springs and the many Southern California road courses that are now shopping malls, I often saw a phrase attached to cars powered by vicious American V8s: point it and punch it.
Well, G 63 may have a state-of-the-art Swabian twin-turbo V8, but it's a point it and punch high-performance vehicle. If you want near-GT cornering capability in a tall SUV, the two Swabian performance car companies—AMG and that other one—both offer SUVs that will make you pucker attacking a big hairpin corner with elevation change. But that's not G 63's raison d'être.
SPECIAL ORDER PAINT AND INTERIOR
If one accepts my argument that G 63 qualifies as exotica and is not a pokey Tiger Mom SUV, then it's also best to special-order paint and interior, to go a little nutso with a wild color and a slightly kinky leather interior.
In my part of LA, I see at least a dozen of these vehicles every single day: at school transportation, along boulevards, in parking lots of the area's best golf clubs.
Sure, some are white, black or silver—boring rental fleet colors—but most are finished in black cherry, pearlescent gold from the AMG GT color palette, groovy shades of blue, orange, crazy red, screaming lizard green. If you must have a camo shade like my test vehicle wore, at least pick a distinctive shade of green, grey, tan or the test car's titanium. Leave white to the annoying Tiger Moms.
Both Mercedes and that other Swabian sports car maker call their eats-and-treats atelier department MANUFAKTUR (all caps, please). Available colors for G 63 are incredible. Some rich and subtle, some eye-popping outrageous. If you're spending close to $200K, which is the borderland of exotica, then drop the extra cash for cool paint and leather.
WALKING TALL
Geländewagen stands tall, has running boards, and a stubby flat hood, all of which remind of cars from the 1920s. Climbing aboard is a physical event that requires left foot to sideboard, right-hand grip on the steering wheel, and then a hop, arm pull, and hip rotation to smoothly land hindquarters on the most excellent leather-wrapped chairs. This is not the Steve McQueen sports car entrance taught in acting schools.
But with practice, one starts to feel like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood swinging a leg over the saddle of a trusty steed and turning towards the sunset. Or maybe a military officer heading on patrol. I'll say it again to Mercedes: it might help having a grab handle on the A-pillar, or the extreme left of the upper dash panel.
MAN-MACHINE CONNECTION
Man-machine relationship is ideal, expected of a purposeful military vehicle. It works particularly well for tall males. Clearly the basic architecture is meant to accommodate full field dress: boots, sidearm, plate hanger, the works. You're not squeezed in, as with a GT or 2-seat sports car.
Tall and nearly flat, Geländewagen's windshield offers a commanding view forward over the stubby hood and flat fenders. The fendertop turn indicators serve double duty, giving subconscious information about the placement of front wheels, the corners of the vehicle when navigating tight circumstances. A big help working through choppy paths in a warzone, or just placing the car in a parking spot at your local deli. Tall side glass is also a big help. And of course it has all the sensors, cameras and needed real-time software to project useful images onto the flatscreen when maneuvering in an old, cramped downtown parking garage.
No vehicle is perfect. In G 63, the areas where a driver must accept compromise relate to ride characteristics and steering precision.
If you want a limo ride combined with fierce acceleration, well, turn to other luxe gasoline or electric SUVs found on the Mercedes dealer lot. Geländewagen is stubby, with a relatively narrow track. But with the addition of meaty tires, the result is bobbling side to side on uneven pavement, and the occasional entertaining hop over water channels at boulevard intersections. On harsh sections of LA roadway, well, it's that Walt Disney favorite, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
But in the case of G 63, all that hippity-hop is charming, a big part of the fun. With its high seating position, it starts to feel like a restomod based on a classic car from the Teens or Twenties. Also, damping and springing is excellent, and combined with the equally excellent seats, Geländewagen does not kidney punch like the more primitive off-roaders produced in Detroit. It's amusing, not painful.
The other issue is steering, and here is the one place I do not recommend the AMG or MANUFAKTUR optional upgrade. I've never had much interest in off-roading since my uncle the motorcycle desert racer taught me how to ride on a Hodaka, but I've done it, even in an LM002 in the Rocky Mountains. No matter the AMG-spec wheels and tires, G 63 has legit off-roading capability thanks to its sophisticated drive system. One would be hard pressed to find a luxury log structure in the Rocky Mountains or Sierra Nevada that G 63 cannot reach.
Steering is slow, particularly coming off top dead center, a good trait in an off-roading situation, like crawling over culverts and ditches or crossing a short bridge comprised of two felled trees. Wrist-flick steering is great in a track day GT car, but off-roading, with the vehicle jostling the driver about, slower is gooder. But here is a point where brand imagery needs to be adapted to reality. AMG is all about performance and high-performance. Mercedes-AMG builds one of the best Formula One Grand Prix powertrains of 2025, and has won many a world championship. But a steering wheel wrapped in microfiber with carbon-fiber sections top and bottom is not the right choice for this vehicle because it's slippery, and to navigate a 90-degree or tighter corner, one must shuffle steer, repositioning hands, getting a fresh grip while cornering.
AMG should recognize the difference and develop a very thick-rimmed fatboy wheel wrapped in perforated leather or another material that is grippy, preferably with big stitches on the backside where the palm-side of knuckles can dig in. I know, how 1980s, but a fatboy leather-wrapped wheel would work very well. The solution is easy: don't order the gorgeous GT car steering wheel and all will be well.
Thanks to the military DNA, the cargo hold is huge, a tall, flat-sided cube ideal for stowing long rifles headed into the field or to a range. And you can even order it with cherry wood flooring.
For our family friends who live in the northern plains of Canada, well, if you buy a G 63, have the dealer set up a winter wheel/tire package and save the big wheels for summertime. Mercedes is offering a special edition of Geländewagen with a bias to off-roading, dubbed the Better Than The 1980s Edition. The wheel/tire package off that rig would ably handle winter in Winnipeg or Manitoba.
Ancestry and residual off-roading capability notwithstanding, G 63 is not meant for battling Soviets in the Fulda Gap, or serving with UN blue helmets in Bosnia or southern Lebanon. G 63 is an exotic hot rod for blasting along boulevards or cutting a fine figure on the upgraded Main Street of a once-sleepy Rocky Mountain village, a big rumbling war wagon that never, ever fails to bring a big grin and a chuckle.