Few fashions of automobile can declare to have received the Paris-Dakar rally by the hands of racing driver Jacky Ickx, in addition to getting used as the idea for a popemobile. However the Mercedes G-Class isn’t precisely your run-of-the-mill SUV. Right this moment, having served the world since 1979, the manufacturing line in Gratz is celebrating the five hundred,000th instance to roll out of the Austrian manufacturing unit.

Mercedes-Benz has paid tribute to the event by guaranteeing the five hundred,000th instance of the G-Class is a singular manufacturing anniversary car. It pays homage to the SUV’s roots, taking inspiration from the 1986 280 GE, with just a few small however purposeful retro touches.

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Whereas the fundamental form of the G-Class has been pretty unmistakable since its inception, with delicate evolution in design over time, the anniversary mannequin retains the present-day G-Wagen’s traces. Nonetheless, the historic paint code, agave inexperienced, harks again to one of many earliest accessible colour choices for the G-Class. And it’s not simply the physique paint that will get the retro remedy: the indicator covers too are completed in orang. Sure, we will nearly really feel you rolling your eyes at us for highlighting some orange indicators, however it’s a ’70s contact that isn’t seen a lot on automobiles of at present (and, on this author’s opinion, a pattern that should return). Different parts to the outside embrace the big Mercedes star on the rear wheel cowl — a contact that has lengthy since been outmoded by extra restrained badging — and the five-spoke sterling silver wheels.

Inside this distinctive G-Class the adjustments are much less evident. You’ll discover the center part of the seats are upholstered in a fetching chequered cloth that was typical of the early automobiles. On the identical time, there’s a seize deal with on the passenger facet which options the lettering “No. 500,000” in the identical inexperienced as the outside.

See Additionally: What If The Mercedes-Benz G-Class Was Launched In 1969 As A Luxurious SUV?

Launched all the best way again in 1979, the creation of an off-roader with the three-pointed star on the grille was first posited by the Shah of Iran. In 1979 the primary G rolled out of the exact same Gratz manufacturing unit that the five hundred,000th automobile is produced in, with MB stepping into mattress with Austrian navy car producer Steyr-Daimler-Puch to provide the “Geländewagen” (German for cross-country car).

Through the years, the G-Class has been provided in lots of kinds: as a bare-bones possibility for dependable and utilitarian transport, all the best way as much as a wooden, Dinamica, and leather-filled excuse for extravagance. And with an all-electric model set to grace forecourts someday subsequent 12 months, the G Class is exhibiting no indicators of letting up: So, right here’s to the subsequent 500,000 then?