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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsCool Car Find: 2017 Mercedes-Benz G-Class G63 AMG 6×6
At turns sophisticated and rugged, refined and outrageous, this G-Wagon 6×6 is ready to turn heads and climb mountains.
When More is More
How to you take the already flashy and posh Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon and make it even more exclusive and desirable? Easy, you add two more wheels. This month’s Cool Car Find is a 2017 Mercedes-Benz AMG G63 6×6. It’s that last bit on an already long name that makes it something special. The G-Wagon 6X6 is desert sheik chic and equally at home in the Hollywood hills as it is blasting over sand dunes and making easy work of treacherous alpine obstacles.
The 6×6 version of the G-Wagon began as a military build for the Australian Army dating to 2007. Naturally, Mercedes figured they could take the initial design and make a few bucks tooling up the world’s most luxurious off-roader. Produced from 2013 through 2015, just around 100 were built, making them exceptionally rare and therefore expensive. Our Cool Car Find has a separate history, which we’ll expand on below. But first, we need to discuss just how crazy this outlandish G-Wagon 6×6 really is.
Big, Silly Numbers
There are a few things about the G-Wagon 6×6 that won’t surprise you. Take the 5.5L twin-turbo V8 making 544 horsepower and 560 lb.-ft. of torque. Makes sense, this is an AMG after all. The interior is also extremely well appointed with luxury touches that include quilted leather upholstery, a starry headliner, and wood paneling. Just premium as any Mercedes out there.
Things shift from the expected to the extraordinary once we turn our attention to the off-road attributes and capabilities of the G-Wagon 6×6. First, those three axles are in fact portal axles which further enhance the already prodigious height of the 6×6 to a mammoth 93-inches tall with nearly 20-inches of ground clearance (almost double that of a Jeep Wrangler). Power is split 30x40x30 and there are total of five locking differentials.
The G-Wagon 6×6’s most notable feature has to do with its 37-inch tires. Since you’ll likely be off-roading your 6×6, Mercedes made sure that deflating and airing up your tires was as easy as possible. For this they installed an in-tire deflation/inflation system allowing you to let air out and pump air back in at the push of a button. In fact, Mercedes calls the 20-seconds it takes to re-inflate the tires a “world-record” speed.
That AMG V8 provides decent power to the G-Wagon 6×6, but at 9,000-lbs., there’s a lot of truck to move. This leaves the G-Wagon 6×6 with a 0-60 run of 7.8 seconds and a 40-gallon fuel tank is necessitated by what is undoubtedly rock-bottom fuel economy.
A Conversion Worth the Money
As we noted above, this particular G-Wagon 6×6 wasn’t part of the original 100 produced between 2013 and 2015. This 2017 model, like many G-Wagon 6x6s you’ll find for sale, is a conversion which began its life as a “regular” AMG G63. This conversion was done by the experts in Graz, Austria, where the original G-Wagon 6×6 was built, using all OEM parts.
Unlike many major automotive conversions, which tend to not be worth the money spent on them, giving an AMG G63 the 6×6 treatment greatly increases its aftermarket value. For example, this G-Wagon started out with a retail price of $153,275. Not chump change. But, following its conversion to a 6×6, this same G-Wagon was listed for $308,000 and then later $350,000. With the collectable car market on fire as of late, this G-Wagon 6×6 is listed today for an eye-watering $774,995. So, I guess if you have a spare AMG G63 laying around, consider getting it converted.
