Mercedes-Benz might have just figured out the only way to one-up the G-Wagen. If you want to outdo your army truck off-roader that has transformed into a $200,000 luxury statement, the only way to go is more.
Enter the most luxurious Unimog ever created. To mark 80 years of the truck that was half tractor and ultimate workhorse, Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks has gone all out.
The Unimog Is a Legend Around the World
The Unimog has been a workhorse staple in Europe and much of the world since 1948. Conceived after the war as a farm tractor that could also drive on the road, it has had features like multiple power take-off units and portal axles since the beginning.
You’ll find them used in logging, as snowplows, fixing rails, and helping with humanitarian efforts around the world. Over the years, they have grown larger and more capable until the current generation launched in 2013.
The First Luxury Model Mog
The G-Wagen, properly known as the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, overcame its roots to get luxury and AMG models. The Unimog, probably because of its size, hasn’t. But with this one, it might.
Benz Special Trucks calls it simply the luxury Unimog show car. It was developed along with Hellgeth Engineering, a company that takes the Unimog and turns it into whatever you need. Implement or ultimate overlander, or in this case, a luxurious ride.
Instead of utilitarian vinyl or fabric, this one is leather inside. Not just on the seats, but on the ceiling. And it’s a diamond-quilted pattern, like you would expect to find in an AMG or Maybach Benz.
Even the floor mats are leather, though if we’re being honest, this probably still isn’t quite as nice as a G inside. Not yet, at least, even with air spring suspension seats for both driver and front passenger. Still, it’s loaded up with camera mirrors and has new LED lights plus matte gray paint.
Unimog Has Incredible Off-Road Ability
But luxury can also mean capability, and this Unimog delivers. To start, its 5.1L diesel four-cylinder has been replaced by a 7.7L inline six. So instead of 231 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque, it makes 300 horses and 885 torques.
That figure is before the torque goes through the 4×4 system and portal axles. The Unimog has eight off-road gears, with the lowest delivering just 1.3 mph before redline. Benz doesn’t give you a ratio chart, just max in-gear speeds.
It has differential locks front, center, and rear. This one wears extreme Michelin X Force ZL tires in 395/85R20, but taller and wider tires are available.
The Unimog can ford a yard of water and climb a 100% hill. It has ground clearance best measured in feet. Not only can the axles articulate up to 30 degrees, but the chassis is also designed to bend for even more. Benz says it has 24 inches of diagonal articulation in all.
Where Are the U.S. Unimogs?
Why hasn’t it caught on in America? Mercedes-Benz has tried. The last effort was in the early 2000s era of mammoth trucks like the International CXT and Ford F-650 pickup conversions. Benz brought over a few hundred, but that’s all.
Could this luxury model change that? Probably not, though we’re sure some Benz dealers (especially in ranch country) might like to try. The truck can’t do American highway speeds, and it would probably take a lot to make that happen.
It’s meant as a birthday present to itself, but if there was enough demand, then Mercedes-Benz would surely try to make it happen. And if it couldn’t, the conversion company that helped build it is just an email away.
