Who says decommissioned military vehicles can't make decent dailies?

With the passing of each new year the list of vehicle available for import into the United States gets steadily bigger. Because of that we are starting to see more and more unique vehicles on our city streets and highways. This 1990 Mercedes Benz 250GD is a perfect example. Anyone who knows a thing or two about off roading and overlanding knows that while they may not be the most practical of vehicles, the Mercedes G Wagon's are more than capable when it comes to going off of the beaten path. Why else would they be one of the most common military vehicles around the globe?

Located in New Hope, Pennsylvania this 250GD is for sale on ebay with a Buy It Now price of $36,000.00. Compare that to the $100k+ pricing of a new G Class and it doesn't seem like too much to pay. According to the seller this vehicle has just under 36k miles on it.

Out of the many customization's to this vehicle one thing that has remained intact is the parachute rings. You know, just in case you need to be air dropped into some remote area... Also still intact is the original power plant. This G Wagon has the original OM602 engine, which is a 2.5-liter inline 5 cylinder diesel that puts out a whopping 84 HP and 113 lb. ft of torque. It's younger, and much larger brother, the new G550 has the 4.0-liter biturbo V8 pushing 416 HP and can do 0 - 60 in 5.8 seconds. Although the seller does claim that you can comfortably get up to 75 MPH, that doesn't really matter in this vehicle.

The interior is listed as leather, but by the looks of it I am going to say that it is actually MBtex but does that really matter? The rear seats sit noticeably higher than the front seats which may not be an issue with the top open, but if you are tall and sitting back there it may feel a bit cramped if the top is up.

The only real downside I can see to this vehicle is the maintenance hassles. Being a grey market vehicle getting parts from your local Mercedes dealership could be difficult since Mercedes is pretty strict about selling parts to vehicles that were never meant to be in the US. Either way, whether you are cruising down the highway or overlanding to your favorite remote spot, this is definitely a unique vehicle.

Just how capable is the Mercedes Benz GL(S)?

This past June I was sent to Birmingham, Alabama to spend 3 days with Mercedes Benz at their facility. One of the things that we did while there was get driven through an off-road course that showcases just how capable the GL (now the GLS) actually is. The course was broken up into two separate segments. The first was a typical ORV path complete with steps, puddles, rocky climbs, and sharp bends. The second part was more of a mountain trail with steep inclines that wove themselves through thick forest while traversing over slippery roots, mud, and rocks. The whole course culminated in a 75% downhill slope on a gravel covered trail.

To start we went up a small hill with steps carved into it and while it was (obviously) bumpy, the GL had no issue climbing itself up the steps. After that we went onto the offset trail that is designed to make sure that at all times the vehicle is only on 3 wheels. This is to show exactly how rigid the unibody design of the GL is. At one point, with one wheel high up in the air, our driver stopped the vehicle and opened his door to show that there is no body torque or other pressure twisting the vehicle.

The next part of the first segment was all slippery slopes covered in rocks, muddy inclines, a quick jaunt through a simulated water crossing, and a rather tight rock covered U-bend. I have to admit that the turning radius of that U-bend was pretty small and my old Jeep Cherokee XJ would have had a hard time cutting through it. The GL, however, had zero issues making that turn.

The second part of the course was, as stated above, just a twisty hill climb through thick forest, the end of which was a very steep downhill slope. Check out the video below of our descent.

While I wouldn't expect anyone to be doing any rock crawling in their GL450 it is still an extremely capable off-road vehicle. I most definitely was surprised at what it was able to do. To be fair 99.9% of GL owners would never even consider going anywhere that wasn't paved, it is nice to know that they could if they wanted to.

A personal anecdote on the safety of Mercedes Benz

I know that this is only my third entry but I am going to change things up a little bit and get slightly personal.

If you were to ask my wife how my driving is, she would tell you I am a horrible driver and should not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle. That being said I would like to say that I Ken Block'd the heck out of my Mercedes Benz E350 today. Early this morning I had to take my wife to the Emergency room where she ended up having to be admitted for overnight observation. Why is this relevant? because in the morning on the way to the hospital the roads looked like this:





This picture was taken around 9:00 AM. I left the hospital around 3:00 PM to go home and get my ten year old off of the bus to take her to my mothers house. By 3:15 PM the roads started to look like this:





I have lived in the Greater Pittsburgh area my whole life so driving in the snow is no big deal to me. That being said, most other drivers seem to forget how to drive in less than ideal conditions and decide they are going to drive too fast for conditions, often resulting in less than ideal results.

So there I am driving around a very sharp bend about to descend a steep hill. I am inching along at around 10 MPH in almost whiteout conditions when i round the corner and see someone sideways in the middle of my lane. I know I cannot hit the brakes so I let up off the gas and allow the 3.5 liter V6 engine braking to kick in as I gently attempt to steer the car to the left around the obstacle in front of me.

It didn't work.

All that I managed to do was get the nose of the car into the oncoming lane where I started to slide sideways. In slow motion I can see the line my precious Lunar Blue W212 chassis Mercedes Benz E Class is heading on. My passenger side rear quarter panel is going to slam flat into his rear passenger side quarter panel. As my car is sliding towards him I do the only thing I can think of. I turn the wheels down hill and punch the throttle. I feel the engine surge as the Mercedes Benz Electronic Stability Program kicks in. The car swings around, missing the stranded vehicle by what my mind perceives as mere millimeters, but I am not out of the woods yet. Now I am sideways sliding down the hill facing the other direction, only now there is a small bend coming up to the left. With as much counter steering as I can muster I attempt to get the car under control as I feather the throttle as little as possible. I manage to correct the vehicle with a final flourish of a drift around the bend.

While I would like to be able to attribute this total bit of driving bad-assery to my skills I truly cannot. Were it not for the amazing engineering under the hood of my Mercedes Benz I most likely would not be writing this right now as my wife would surely have murdered me for wrecking the car.

As a post script, about 2 miles up the road I came upon this wonderful cluster:






Stay safe out there everyone. Winter is definitely here.