The Mercedes-Benz G-Class has been in production since 1979 and outlasts most of its original competitors. Developed for military use in collaboration with Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch, G-Wagen. passed on to civilian life and never looked back. Today, it’s as much a status symbol as an SUV, the kind of vehicle you see outside a posh Beverly Hills restaurant deep in a Colorado canyon on the same weekend.
Inside, the G-Class offers Nappa leather seating, a pair of 12.3-inch displays that make up the MBUX dual-screen setup, and multi-color lighting throughout the cabin. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, navigation and a surround-view camera system are standard.
Off-road equipment includes three differentials that can be locked sequentially, an adaptive suspension system, and a set of driver programs that cover everything from highway cruising to rock crawling.
Three powerful power transmission options
Blast the doors of other SUVs
The 2026 G 550 is powered by a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six mild hybrid that produces 443 horsepower and 413 lb-ft. torque. Power is sent to all four wheels via a nine-speed automatic and a two-speed gearbox.
The G-Class lineup also includes the AMG G 63, which uses a 4.0-liter biturbo V8 to produce 577 horsepower and 627 lb-ft. torque. Meanwhile, the all-electric G 580 with EQ Technology uses four electric motors for a combined output of 579 horsepower and 859 lb-ft. torque.
The 2026 G 550 starts at $153,900. It should be noted soon that the Toyota Land Cruiser covering much of the same off-road area considerably less (but, yes, there’s an argument to be made that there’s no exception for the G-Wagon).
Regardless, the manual isn’t exactly light reading when you’re buying a car like the G-Class. The 2026 G-Class operator’s manual covers 829 pages. I uploaded the entire PDF to Clo and asked him to identify useful features that a G-Class owner might have but not know about.
- Main Trim Engine
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4L AMG V8 Hybrid
- Main Trim Transmission
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9-speed automatic
- Basic Trim transmission
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All-wheel drive
The G-Class shows you what’s under the hood
360° camera shows the area you can’t see
The G-Class is a tall car, with the hood sitting well above a normal crossover or SUV. When you’re crawling over rocky or uneven ground, the area directly in front of the bumper becomes a risky blind spot. The Clear Head feature is the G-Class’s answer to this problem.
The system uses a 360° camera to create a virtual image of the terrain displayed on the central display via the G-Class’s Offroad menu. When the Offroad menu is open and the camera is turned on, the transmission is in Drive and the vehicle is traveling at approximately 4-5 mph, the clear hood view is automatically activated.
The display shows the area under the hood, the position of the front wheels, the current route of travel and the altitude above sea level.
As you increase the speed, the system switches automatically. From about five miles per hour, the view switches from a clear hood to a standard front camera view. Depending on the active driving program, the camera turns off after speeds of approximately 12-19 mph are exceeded.
The manual clarifies that the image is created from the frames recorded by the camera while the G-Class moves over that part of the ground. Despite what it looks like, what the driver is seeing is not a live feed looking straight down. This means that a moving object entering the frame may not be visible after the images are taken. The manual recommends using the screen as a guide and handling any obstacles with care.
DSR allows the G-Class to control its speed
Downhill Cruise Control maintains a set pace so you can control
Driving an SUV on a frame on a steep, loose slope requires concentration. You line up, hit the brakes, and try to stop the car from running away from you. In these situations, DSR, which stands for Downhill Speed Regulation, is a driver’s best friend.
The system works by automatically applying the brakes as the gradient demands, maintaining a target speed between two and 11 miles per hour on downhill slopes. The steeper the slope, the more braking force DSR applies. Retracts on flat ground or uphill.
Cruise or accelerate the G-Class to your desired speed between 2-11 mph, then release the pedal. DSR locks to this speed and holds it. From there, you can fine-tune everything by using the steering wheel buttons to raise or lower everything by one mile per hour. The set speed appears on the driver’s screen under the green DSR indicator.
DSR works in Drive, Reverse and Neutral modes, which is important in terrain where you may need to back up a section rather than forward. It remains active in Trail Drive, but automatically turns off if you change drive programs or exceed 28 mph.
The feature is available through the Offroad menu in MBUX or the Settings menu under Help. It was a Mercedes Improvement of off-road systems of G-Class with every generation and DSR is one of the best examples of this.
Custom mode builds a driver program around you
Set the suspension, transmission and exhaust
The G-Class comes with a full suite of drive programs via Dynamic Select, including Comfort, ECO, Sport, Sport Plus (on AMG models), Trail, Rock and Sand.
Manual documentation and what’s easy to miss Custom mode, marked with a “=” symbol in the driver mode selector, allows you to configure your own program from scratch.
In custom mode, you adjust each system category separately. The transmission can be set to an automatic or manual shift option. The suspension character can be adjusted between comfort and sport-oriented settings. The developed sound profile available on AMG models varies between Balanced and Powerful.
Once you’ve landed on a combination you like, the G-Class saves it and your options are waiting for you the next time you log in.
Read the manual, or let Clod
Mercedes-Benz G-Class keeps the owner’s manual in PDF format owner’s resources portal. If you own a G-Class and want to do this exercise yourself, download the manual for your model year, upload it to Clo and ask any question you like.
This approach works for any car as long as you have a PDF of the owner’s manual. Claude is what I’m using here, but Gemini and ChatGPT can do the same job.
When it comes to the G-Class, the transparent hood view, DSR and Custom mode are hidden away in a document that most people never open. The 829-page G-Class manual will reward the patient reader, but downloading it to Claude was quicker and more practical.
