History

In 1985 I had my first G-Wagen. It was a Metallic Dark Blue 280GEL. At the time I lived in a village which could only be reached or left by going up or down a very steep hill. In the winter, if it snowed, getting in or out could be tricky. With the G Wagen, it was not only no problem, it was great fun and quite popular in the village for helping others out. In those days, the G was somewhat “Agricultural”. From 1991 on, they became more and more comfortable, luxurious and efficient, with the “463” chassis, whilst losing none of their remarkable build quality or originality and ability.

During the Nineties, the G-Wagen was distributed by Mercedes Dealers throughout the Network, although it has to said that very few of them liked or understood Gs., probably because the first cars in 1981 had been so basic they were fighting a losing battle with the by then luxurious Range Rover. By 1994, the G-Wagen was distributed by special order only and in 1996., the last year of MB UK's distribution, only SIX Gs were imported during the entire year. Ninety Six was the year that I started knocking on Daimler Benz's door. By then, we were selling and servicing nothing but G Wagens and there were some very good models available. I wanted to import them, particularly, the G300 Turbo Diesel, which I believed would sell extremely well in the U.K., if it was built in right hand drive.

After many discussions and meetings in the U.K., Austria and Germany, we were appointed to be “SOLE UK CONCESSIONAIRES FOR G-WAGEN” by Daimler Benz in Stuttgart. At the time, they did state that they would build the G300 Turbo Diesel in right hand drive, but sadly, they changed their mind. We had the G290 Turbo Diesel on the 461 chassis which was a cross between the old 460 (1979-1990) and the later 463 (1991 to date), but it was not the right car for the U.K., market in general. Fine as a work horse for the farming fraternity, but not luxurious or comfortable enough to compete with the Range Rover market.

Then it happened!! At the end of 1998., the best G-Wagen by far came along in the shape of the G500. This was a fabulous car with the same V8 five litre petrol engine as the new S Class, a five speed automatic gearbox plus leather, air conditioning, electric seats and so many really luxurious features as standard that now we had a World Beater!!

This wonderful car with it's exceptional build quality and stunning off-road ability, now had on-road ability to simply slaughter any of it's so called competitors. Having driven up and down a few mountains and quarries in Gs in my time, I was now able to positively show off on the road. At 0-60mph., in under 7 seconds and over One Hundred and Thirty Miles per hour in along wheel base weighing just under three tons, even the hotted up versions of the competition could not be seen for dust!! The most extraordinary thing about this truly fantastic car was that it was reckoned to do up to TWENTY FIVE MILES TO THE GALLON!  I have to admit that I have never achieved that, because the car is such fun to drive, but having driven from Berkshire to Scotland on a number of occassions, loaded to the gunnels with Family etcetera, I can honestly report that I have averaged between Nineteen and Twenty miles to the gallon and I assure you, I am not known for my “Economical Driving”!

The G500 comes in three guises. The long wheel base, (LWB)., the short wheel base, (SWB)., and the Cabriolet. There was also an AMG version, the G55 which was in LWB only. During '99., 2000., and 2001., we sold quite a few in the U.K., mostly LWB with smaller numbers of the other two and then at the end of 2001., because of the emerging market for the G500 in the United States, they ceased production of all RHD G-Wagens. For us this was a disaster. Mercedes Benz had created by far the best G-Wagen ever and just as we were building our market share, they took it away from us.

The new cars were now all LHD. The new models had even greater creature comforts than the original G500 with COMMAND, the Mercedes satellite navigation system as standard and various other sensible modifications to make life at the wheel of a G even more comfortable and luxurious. The model range increased to give the G500, the G400 which is a V8 Twin Turbo Diesel and the G270CDi., with the same common rail Diesel engine as fitted to the M Class. Tragically, the two Diesel models have never been built in RHD. The G55 AMG now became the G55 Kompressor, being fitted with a SUPERCHARGER, this becomes the fastest G-Wagen so far and by that I mean   0-100Kmh., in 5.6 seconds.

Business has been difficult for us since mid 2002 because of the lack of new RHD vehicles and as customers were now unable to upgrade their G for a new  one, they would not let the old one go. As a result, we have built up too large a stock of the Old 460s., not enough 463s and hardly any G500s. As a rule, if a G500 comes our way, we sell it before we receive it. Although we have sold some LHD Gs., in general, the British buyer wants RHD., and some of our customers in nthe World Wide RHD market, such as Africa and Australia, are not allowed to import Left hand drive vehicles.

We are currently having a sale of the 460 model Gs as we have too many and we are also in the process of restoring some of the “sadder” ones to their former glory, in order to put them back into the market place. When you consider that between 1981 and 2005., there have only been circa FIVE THOUSAND G Wagens imported into the U.K., even the older ones are quite rare, so good condition used G-Wagens are hard to find. Some of the vehicles are beyond economical repair and so we dismantle them, which added to our stock of new parts gives us unquestionably the largest stock of G-Wagen parts in the U.K. Furthermore, if we haven't got it in stock, we can usually obtain it for you, eventually.