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GwagenLover
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: Winston Salem, NC USA 27104
Vehicle(s): 2016 G550 & 2016 GLE350
Posts: 473
| Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
The article written by Dan Neil is not good to the Gwagen owners.
First the head line:
"The end of the road for the worlds most badass SUV?"
Then Dan Neil the Wall Street Journal writer has nothing good to say about the G owners.
"People buy G-Class for the status, to gorge their egos, to show off flamboyantly, even belligerently.
He goes on and on and on and on.
He belittles the G owners endlessly.
I have a copy of his rant.
It is too much to post, but it surely got to me.
It is obvious he is young, a liberal and reminds me of a true socialist.
He writes an article that demonstrates his hate for a G owner and their ability to buy and enjoy the G.
In the end he does give a heads up on the G.
I will be glad to send this page to the Administrator Doppleganger.
Send a pm with mailing info.
This article was left on my door step by the NC state treasurer this morning.
Edited by GwagenLover 2/22/2020 10:35 AM
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DUTCH
Administrator Doppelgänger
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: US, GA, Atlanta
Vehicle(s): 2015 Audi Q7 3.0 TDI,2018 Sprinter
Posts: 9963
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Thanks. Here's the link to the article, but it's behind a pay wall.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-mercede... |
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J.R.
Elite Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: Southern Maryland
Vehicle(s): 00 G500, 09 911 4S, 11 Cayenne S, 86 280GE (sold)
Posts: 828
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Is This the End of the Road for Mercedes’s G-Wagens?
As an off-road SUV with luxury styling and a six-figure price tag, the 2020 Mercedes-AMG G 63 is a boxy bundle of contradictions. Dan Neil explains why organized crime’s favorite SUV is a thrill to drive and not long for this world
REDLINING IT Often spied in black, the G 63 actually comes in Mercedes’s widest variety of colors, including ‘designo Cardinal Red Metallic.
PHOTO: MERCEDES-BENZ
By Dan Neil
Feb. 14, 2020 7:48 am ET
THE 2020 Mercedes-AMG G 63 is a boxy bundle of contradictions. For example: This is an extreme off-road vehicle, right? Yet it is fitted with chrome-tipped underhung side pipes; shod with 22-inch cross-spoke wheels; and our tester ($186,395) was tinted with an impeccable, once-in-a-lifetime matte green-gray finish (Dark Olive Green Magno). So what happens if you aim your new Geländewagen down a wooded trail and briers scratch it? Oh, too late.
While the AMG division’s riff on Mercedes’s venerable G-Wagen has an Olympian physique—a handcrafted twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 (627 lb-ft), three lockable differentials and a Hi-Lo gearbox—taking it off-road is like asking a champion pole vaulter to compete in a black cocktail dress. She might be able to clear the bar but there won’t be much dress left.
One of the brilliant insights of Tesla’s Cybertruck is the stainless-steel finish on an outdoor/adventure truck, a finish that doesn’t need paint or repainting, won’t rust, is impervious to scratches and is ding-resistant (Tesla says it will resist a 9mm handgun round but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that). A stainless-steel G-Wagen would be the nibs, wouldn’t it?
But let’s get real: People buy the G-Class for status, to gorge their egos, to show off flamboyantly, even belligerently. You know how people accuse Tesla drivers of virtue-signaling? The G 63 is a flaming beacon of vice, a rolling, trolling lighthouse of petrosexuality. Its vortex-fed V8 guzzles a gallon of premium every 14 miles, on average, says the EPA. That is some Sith-level indifference right there.
G-Wagens are a film cliché, typecast as what the bad guys arrive in, embodying armored criminality.
During its 40-year tenure, the G-Class has acquired a set of complex and ambiguous semiotics. In parts of the world, black G-Wagens are recognized as boxes bad people come in: spooky business dudes with body men, Hollywood flesh peddlers, high-living ballers, horse-obsessed Connecticut debutantes. Remember “Sex and the City 2”? Now try to forget.
Context matters. A convoy of black G-Wagens rolling on Quai President Woodrow Wilson in Geneva, or parked in front of the Raffles Singapore, codes differently than if it were coming down the Vegas Strip. That could be a bachelorette party, though still dangerous. These machines have a significant piece of the ambassadorial, armored security, and high-end livery trade from Beijing to Djibouti. Formal black cars are de rigueur.
How the G-Wagen came to be associated with mammon and villainy is a long, partly self-fulfilling story. It was initially developed as a military vehicle for the Shah of Iran—so not exactly the Peace Corps. In 1972, Daimler-Benz formed a partnership with the company now called Magna Steyr, with production starting in 1979 in the tidy town of Graz, Austria.
The partnership endures to this day, as does the G-Wagen’s basic fabricating conceit of geometrically simple, nearly flat stampings of heavy-gauge steel, welded to comprise an inner and outer monocoque; a roll cage integrated into the roof pillars and windshield header; and rigidly fixed, heavy-gauge body panels. Its mega-strong body-in-white is then married to a mil-spec ladder frame. It’s this construction method that gives the G-Wagen its inimitable sensory charm, like shaking the gloved hand of a bronze statue.
The low-cost simplicity and toughness of these body stampings are two more things the G-Wagen would seem to have in common with the Cybertruck.
The civilian G-Wagen’s moment didn’t arrive until the dissolution of order in Russia after Boris Yeltsin and the rise of the oligarchs, who had unique transpo needs, let’s say. Soon after, the G-Wagen became an action-film cliché, typecast globally as embodying nihilism and up-armored criminality.
So of course Bunny wants one. U.S. sales of the G-Class have soared in the past decade, from 662 in 2009 to 7,348 in 2019.
How does it drive? Well, I should say the experience of styling around town in this murdered motha is freaking, fracking awesome, like automotive masquerade—This is my parking spot. I’m…John Wick. I was also hoping people would think I was the world’s oldest NBA rookie.
The interior was magical: the commanding view from seat height, that huge, upright windshield. Dang, these things are luxury elephants. Also, in a lot of Mercedes’s products, the extra-big, landscape-oriented display panel looks out of place, like a black canoe paddle stuck in the dash. The G-Wagen’s ample dimensions gave the interior designers plenty of room to properly ensconce.
Nothing about this safe-deposit box on wheels made me want to explore its limits. While the G-Wagen acquired an independent, double-wishbone front suspension in its redesign, there’s still a solid axle in the rear. Very solid.
It is the world’s quickest foot locker. Stuttgart reports the G 63 can nick to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. Yeah, I did some of that. I put it in Sport+ mode and stood on it through three quick gear changes. I didn’t note the speed but the sound was like shaking a giant mahogany rattle at the sky.
Most of the time, in real-life city driving, the biturbo 4.0-liter V8 and nine-speed transmission sound muted, muffled and unhappy. They are so desperate to save what meager amounts of fuel they can (through stop/start, cylinder deactivation and throttle mapping) that the whole apparatus feels lethargic, with a disconcerting number of one-Mississippis before any changes in delta-v. Elon knows a fix for that powertrain latency, by the way.
For lovers of unwieldy paramilitary luxury, the bad news is that the gas-powered G-Wagen is doomed. European emissions rules will kill it, kill it with fire. I give the civilian version four more years. The good news is that none of the G-Wagen’s ass-kicking charms need be lost in the model’s inevitable conversion to electrification. As the Cybertruck well shows.
2020 Mercedes-AMG G 63
PHOTO: MERCEDES-BENZ
Starting Price: $156,450
Price, as Tested: $186,395
Engine and Drivetrain: Biturbo direct-injection 4.0-liter V8 with cylinder deactivation; nine-speed automatic, with manual-shift mode; two-speed transfer case with low range; front, middle and rear locking differentials; permanent four-wheel drive (40:60, front:rear)
Power/Torque: 577 hp at 6,000 rpm/627 lb-ft at 2,500-3,500 rpm
Length/Width, with mirrors/Height/Wheelbase: 191.9/86.1/77.4/113.8 inches
Ground Clearance: 9.5 inches
Curb Weight: 5,842 pounds
0-60 mph: 4.4 seconds
EPA Fuel Economy: 13/15/14 mpg, city/highway/combined
Write to Dan Neil at Dan.Neil@wsj.com |
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DUTCH
Administrator Doppelgänger
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: US, GA, Atlanta
Vehicle(s): 2015 Audi Q7 3.0 TDI,2018 Sprinter
Posts: 9963
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Thanks J.R.! |
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GwagenLover
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: Winston Salem, NC USA 27104
Vehicle(s): 2016 G550 & 2016 GLE350
Posts: 473
| Re: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
the article reads: 620 sold in 2009.
I am wondering how many were sold in 2002 when they first brought them to the American buyers.
If some one finds his email address, I will bend his ear.
Edited by GwagenLover 2/22/2020 2:22 PM
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J.R.
Elite Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: Southern Maryland
Vehicle(s): 00 G500, 09 911 4S, 11 Cayenne S, 86 280GE (sold)
Posts: 828
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
it is at the bottom of the article in my posting. |
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Mikeruzek
Member
Date registered: Mar 2013
Location: Park City, UT
Vehicle(s): 2005 G500, 2006 R500 (wife), Turner Sultan 29er
Posts: 9
| Re: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Hopefully it scares away the kardashian types and other douchebags and brings the g back to its roots. |
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koly
Elite Veteran
Date registered: Jul 2006
Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA
Vehicle(s): 2000 G500
Posts: 823
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Besides everything else Mr. Musk has accomplished, he's now invented stainless steel that is "impervious to scratches?" Homeowners with small children and stainless steel appliances around the world rejoice! |
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rhd280
Regular
Date registered: Dec 2014
Location: New Zealand
Vehicle(s): 1982 280GE LWB RHD
Posts: 62
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Dear Dan,
I recall when the Wall Street Journal was a newspaper for adults - measured stories, conservative, informative and mature. My father, a loyal Republican south of the Mason Dixon Line (rare breed back in the day), read it every night, smoking his pipe while drinking his bourbon.
As a member of several forums that provide information on the Mercedes G Wagon, your article of 15 February was brought to the attention of the forum. I read it. I suppose it is a measure of how journalism has fallen. What a hatchet job.
You pander to your audience. You truck in clichés while accusing Mercedes of doing so.
I can accept the G-wagon is not your preference, and you are enamored by Mr. Musk - he who promises to wipe out the dark sky with 12,000 satellites (and yes, I already saw the first string of them, like a freeway in the sky).
But I find your review to be adolescent at best. Your bio photo does not show a pimply-faced teenager, but your writing resembles it.
The G-wagon is expensive, and yes, there are people who buy them for status. There are people who will never drive them off road. If people did not buy for status, we would be living in Lada Land. If you haven't noticed, capitalism (the focus of your newspaper) includes selling status. If you want same-same, try 20th century Soviet Union.
There are people who buy G wagons because they are the most extraordinary performers when extreme conditions demand it. They will be the last to get stuck, be it off-road or in a New England blizzard. Once I used mine to pull a huge tree that had fallen over in a hurricane blocking off the north end of town - the Greenwich CT fire trucks were standing there trying to work out how to get through. The G and a few heavy chains later, North Street was open again. Unbelievable torque and grip with all wheels locked in lower case. They last forever. Mine is a 1982 with 400,000 miles on it. It has towed tons of heavy building material - fully loaded with marble floor tiles, cement bags, Italian roof tiles and more. Once we hooked a 20 foot trailer loaded with three tons of firewood up a 40° slope with real chains (not tire chains) wrapping each wheel. It made it without breaking out a sweat. During Jazz Festival, the director rang me in a panic, asking me to transport Charmaine Neville and her band through a foot of mud in the middle of a cyclone to get them to the performance (the tent was full of water, but the audience loved it - best jazz festival ever). They arrived with clean boots. Once when the taxis did not come, we managed to pack in 20 people (yes, faces were plastered on the glass) to get them to the ferry. When we take guests on the back road tours, they sit high and ride comfortable - on our washboard gravel roads the springs are far more forgiving than a Jeep. While the 280GE is rated to carry 1750 pound payload, I can say that when it carries 4,500 pounds, it does so without complaint or distortion. They have extraordinary capacity.
I'm not a gangster, oligarch or poser. I bought mine because I needed a tool. Now, 38 years later, it probably is a classic. We had it reupholstered in saddle leather to take the abuse of horse-riding daughters, big-nailed dogs and farm-truck duty. Yes, the fuel mileage is awful and my 280GE does not do zero to sixty anymore, but who is in a hurry?
The remarkable thing about my G wagon is its resale value. I just did a quick google search. 1981 280GE $55,900 https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1981/mercedes_benz/g_wa... Same color as mine, a year older although mine has eight times the mileage (if their odometer is correct) and mine has not been washed in 20 years.
Someone has to buy new cars, or there will never be a market for used. The pollution embedded in a car is massive before it does its first mile. Mr. Musk's Tesla has a very dirty supply chain that we overlook as we fuel up on clean-green electric power (umm, if we have a solar charger that is). G-wagons last much longer than consumer cars. The first owner may be a movie star on steroids but as it works its way through the years, its pollution quotient drops. 40 years old and still going. That is the lifetime of four cars, but it is not unusual in a G Wagon. Break a window - no problem, it's a flat slab that any glass company can fabricate. Crash a fender, no problem, they too are flat slabs that any shop can fabricate. The power trains seem to run forever. When they do crash, well I saw one that had flipped over at 60 mph on the NJ turnpike. Every single panel was severely dented, huge scrape marks on the roof, most of the glass gone... and every single door opened and closed with the same clunk of a new Mercedes. The driver walked away unharmed. And the wrecked G sold for $7,000 to the first caller, with 20 more lined up within a few minutes of it being listed.
I doubt I will change your mind. You are in the business of pandering to your audience. But if you ever want a real G experience, do a posting at http://www.pointedthree.com/disc/forums/showthread.asp?tid=24182&po... and ask if one of the forum members would like to take you for a ride in the real world of G wagons. I can assure you, scratching the paint on the sagebrush will not be a concern to the driver as you will find yourself in parts of the great outdoors that few can access except on horseback or in a G-wagon.
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GwagenLover
Extreme Veteran
Date registered: Apr 2006
Location: Winston Salem, NC USA 27104
Vehicle(s): 2016 G550 & 2016 GLE350
Posts: 473
| Re: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Your article was a great answer to a knot head that is just pushing his newspaper into the lime light of people that do not understand what owning a Gwagen is about.
I for one would prefer that Gwagen to be less glamorous in appointments.
I prefer the simple interiors and without the luxury that today's Gwagen is.
To many the Gwagen is a work horse and is put to work when necessity arrives.
The Gwagen is a road worthy tractor and without a doubt can meet any off road or field use.
Be it on the farm, in the bush or at rest in a suburb, the Gwagen has it's place.
I doubt the writer has ever been off of the city streets of New York.
He has ventured into writing about owners of a vehicle that have used the G to meet untold demands.
The writer was not raised where muddy, routed dirt roads out numbered paved roads.
This man's rant would have been better served if he had written about taxi cabs that are in his realm.
Maybe he is best left alone to walk home or take the subway daily to his appartment.
There is always one like him seeking to belittle those of us that know the challenge and have met it in a Gwagen. |
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Desert Fox
Veteran
Date registered: May 2013
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Vehicle(s): G500 2002
Posts: 191
| RE: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
Nice retort! |
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JamesG
Regular
Date registered: May 2006
Location: Conifer, Colorado
Vehicle(s): 2011 G550, 2000 L.C.,1997 L.C.1987 FJ60
Posts: 98
| Re: Wall Street Journal full page Feb 15-16
This arrogant little punk presumes to know me or any other owner of a G Wagen. |
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