The Mercedes G550 4x4 Squared Is a $250,000 German Monster Truck

this is a 2017 mercedes-benz g550 4x4 squared it costs around two hundred and fifty thousand dollars which is double the price of a regular Mercedes G Wagon and it's listed way off the ground so it has double V off-roading abilities of a regular G Wagon and today I've borrowed this one from a viewer here in Virginia so I can show you why it's double the insane of a regular G Wagon [Music] of course I'm going to demonstrate that in a minute by driving the g-wagen 4x4 squared and you can read all of my thoughts on the driving experience if you click the link below to read my review on autotrader.com slash oversteer but right now I'm going to take you on a little tour and show you all of the crazy quirks and weird features that make the G Wagon 4x4 squared so unusual even when it's just sitting still first a quick overview the g550 4x4 Squared uses the same engine from the regular g550 a twin-turbo v8 with 416 horsepower and 450 pound feet of torque it's officially available in the United States but you might never see one production numbers likely won't top 300 or so for the entire country the interior is the same as a standard G Wagon but all the other stuff well you'll see but when sorry about that little smudge on the lens now the craziest thing you instantly notice about this vehicle is obviously its height I am 6 foot 3 I'm not a short person but this is not a short vehicle next up here's a comparison with this thing and my Range Rover this is not some tiny little crossover this is no same sized SUV and people do me crap for driving something so big well it ain't so big now look at the difference in mirror height look at the difference in roof height and maybe the craziest thing when you open the Range Rovers door the middle of it barely reaches the G wagons running boards the four by smallest grant is enormous in fact it's 20 inches taller than a Range Rover but the Range Rover is the wrong vehicle to use for a demonstration of the G wagons height for a better comparison this is the G Wagen 4x4 squared this is a public school bus their Huns are at the same level that means when you're driving this your driving position is what we the same is when you're driving this in case you think I'm lying about the driving position here it is next to one of these flat front buses the G Wagen 4x4 squares hood comes up to this buses windshield when you're driving this thing you'll basically be chatting it up with fire engine drivers school bus drivers garbage truck drivers oh nothing you have a lot in common now speaking of gargantuan size you can't talk about height and not mention with the standard G Wagon is only sixty nine and a half inches wide which is narrower than a Ford focus but to create the g-wagen 4x4 squared they had to add over a foot of width to this vehicle the result this one is 82 inches wide which makes it wider than a Ford Raptor another crazy thing about this vehicle is the ground clearance mercedes-benz has listed this thing off the road he's including called portal axles which I'll get to in a second right now the important thing to understand is a Ford Raptor the off-road muscley pickup truck has 9.3 inches of ground clearance this thing has 18 inches double a ford Raptors ground clearance what exactly does 18 inches of ground clearance and tail well let me demonstrate [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we can't afford Raptor another interesting thing about this vehicle is the bumper situation now when mercedes-benz lifted the entire g-wagen body that was gonna lifted the bumper itself and the result of that is that the normal bumper on this car doesn't really conform to the bumpers on any other vehicles that we get an accent so in order to sell this in the United States mercedes-benz had to fit this tiny little aluminum looking bumper all the way on the bottom it's the lowest point in the car and kind of looks like a weird afterthought bumper and then there are the fenders now in order to Jack this thing up and make it all off road ready Mercedes had to stick a bunch of suspension components down there which involved widening the vehicle and so the tires came out from the body and they needed some fenders the interesting part of this decision was Mercedes decided to make the fenders out of carbon fiber now that may seem like it's sort of a cool thing carbon-fiber fenders except you're driving along and this wheel kicks up some rocks and then BAM it goes right near carbon-fiber failure I can we imagine what these giant carbon-fiber fenders cost to replace now one of the things you'll quickly realize with the height situation in this vehicle is that stepping inside is no longer especially easy we demonstrate you open the door and then look at this is 18 inches you got to step over it's not it's not the easiest thing the world the first the front is hard but harder yet is the rear let me show you you open the back door you notice not only do you have to climb over 18 inches but the space to get in is much smaller because of the giant rear fender and because it's desala much legroom in this thing not only that you have to climb over 18 inches and then you have to climb even higher to get into the back seat most importantly you don't want to put your hand on the extremely expensive carbon fiber vendor because you don't want to break it so climb inside you don't put your hand there you got to eat yourself up Oh climb even further and now I'm in not so bad but now getting out I can't put my hand there so I just got to kind of sleep the height also creates a problem if you're trying to load stuff in in modern cars people complain if they have to lift the package above their knees in order to get the car and this thing you have to look bit above your waist leave it I level for short people now the interesting thing is once it's here it's actually a little bit easier to get out of there in a normal car because this is right here boom but getting it in the first place not especially easy now one of the interesting things you'll notice about this vehicle when you first see it is all of the lights the front end is generally the same as a regular g-wagen but look up here you have these orange marker lights in front but turn on whenever you turn on the headlight and in back you have the same setup the same grouping of lights except they're red and they come on every time you turn on the headlights I assume this is to warn people that you're coming in a vehicle that is incredibly tall semi trucks have lights like these now the most interesting part are these these are little LED lights like the running lights up front unfortunately the federal government decided apparently that Mercedes Benz is not allowed in the US market to turn on the LED lights presumably because it would blind birds or something anyway the point is you can't turn them on at all they're just there in foreign markets they come on but not here a one other interesting thing about the light panel on the roof then I have carbon fiber which is weird because it just faces forward it's kind of susceptible to rot chips also susceptible to rot chips those fenders again in the front they also face forward and the carbon fiber is right here could easily get hit Maya Rockets kicked up from another vehicle now let's talk about the portal axles which is rather busy this vehicle is able to be lifted so high off the ground now when a normal guy just lifts his truck usually just does the suspension leaving the axles where they are and then they become the lowest point on the vehicle not in this case in this case they've done the suspension which lifted it up but they also move the axle now in a normal vehicle the axles are right in the middle of the wheel that makes the most sense the wheels turn on the axles are right in the center in this car the portal axles actually lift up a bone the center of the wheel for extra ground clearance tremendously expensive solution but it gives it thing probably six extra inches of ground clearance amazing to look at now that's why I was able to climb underneath it there's absolutely nothing in tumbling this car since the axles have been moved out of the way of any objects this thing has so much ground clearance you can probably drive over a fire hydrant and not damage another thing I love about this car not unique to the 4x4 squared but all G wagons is the basketball hoop cupholder allow me to explain now the G Wagen came out back in the 70s before people are putting cupholders and cars when they modernized it later for the US market they needed to add a couple there and so for the front they added this thing look at that look at that look at this cup holder and tell me it does not look exactly like a basketball hoop for tiny basketball unfortunately it is a couple there and this is the only front cup holder in the g-wagon so that's most of the insanity but not all of it for the rest I have to climb inside and get out on the road in this thing a 250 thousand dollar german-built monster truck all right time to drive the four by four squared oh boy what we see very high then you'll notice that yeah there's the windowing you know in the animated it was different hips to be lifted done another 10 inches off the ground as I'm compromising what a mysterious tree doesn't permanently direct now I do feel like I own the road I really feel like everybody what is it yeah yes and I guess here dynamics part we're always on the left bank and then we love to get a little change in course and definitely body can go under course which is actually kind of mining suppressors you may close listen I know professional running incident body rolls roll it's not a special problem I wanted to I get run over that need such an interesting people right hearing friends new cars is quite a big dream yes when you come to a full stop at a light it stops and then it kind of rocks back and forth a little bit the other interesting thing is the car feels terrible mistake is potentially a few clamps and defenders and you remember by the way don't forget I had six inches on either side of me I gotta tell for the amount of parking the tech scene I really need pickup in a pickle that painting is above the ground how much they are than this car and collective am very disappointed that is unbelievable I am looking down and rather flammable cute that guy brought in a frenzy by the really special essential we're coming it looks like us is fun believe I'm in my room but I need to visit a normal car you're my rage around a little our main things I look at if I think all other small crossover in this vehicle ain't like a psychological control except for the interior any place you can stitch them your beautiful leather carbon fiber strands Intervale if you travel I believe all of your chameleon Alcantara steering eliminating look arrangement on Michael Beasley interesting rising rates battery you have a combination of sorts of things okay with a lifted pickup you have the luxury that you associate with over safes been oh then you have this steering position that I've only ever got what I print like I know but you fall when I moved facility it was kind of like that this is incredible I can see the entire I can see I'm sitting behind a Volvo xc90 I can see over it and then I can see to the next car front of like a Highlander I can see his room rack situation I can see the roof registration car in front of him I think it doesn't bring a job like we saw with the rough roads and I think it's pretty good you do feel it but it isn't uncomfortable I don't feel like I don't feel like it's going fine and also they're closing it I'm not really looking like puddles I wouldn't be really trying to get out of the way over the a what everything I'm surprised how much body rolling things that's not a bad thing I think your college fun happens bag isn't going to handle like whoa it's pretty quick that's pretty quick it's not wildly bad but it moves considering our driving position you know when you sit in that vehicle if you expect it to have fire truck acceleration you know it's interesting I actually wonder if it drives a little better than a turkey leg and just because I sort of have the wider track the corners are further apart and almost as well positioned the standard how how can you know I mean you have a bunch breaking I think that Harlan to me this is the question I'm concerned be waiting release less on here you really can't be like a lot of passing car weight between the past power and the driving position you just own the road you own their own time because even you know in a semi-truck you have the driving for this really on the road but you could need to keep up with a hyundai elantra and in the g63 you're you're not that much taller than a regular SUV my ranger but I but in Michigan and this is the only car Lightning sort of super top like a semi-truck remember if you've ever gone to a monster truck event you've probably looked around and noticed that you aren't exactly surrounded by our nation's elite but let's be honest monster trucks are cool even if you're rich and now the g-wagen 4x4 squared gives the wealthy a chance to have the monster truck experience just like everyone else and actually I think that perfectly sums up what this vehicle is the giant $250,000 german-built monster truck for the 1% and g550 4x4 squared it is something something how much is 18 inches well allow me to demonstrate the bumper to bumper by [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 3,945,514

Rating: 4.7859473 out of 5

Keywords: mercedes g-wagen, 4x4 squared, g-wagen 4x4 squared, mercedes 4x4 squared, g-wagen 4x4 ^2, 4x4 ^2, mercedes g550, mercedes g-class, g-wagen, mercedes g550 4x4 squared, g550 4x4 squared, g-wagen 6x6, mercedes g-wagen 6x6

Id: kgcAA4HUxuE

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 11 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/copperbricks]

This is a great review, but I wish there were some convenient website where I could hear more of Dougs thoughts on this car and the driving experience.

[u/FuckCazadors]

I'm going to wait for the V12 biturbo version because this seems a little downmarket for my needs.

[u/menasan]

ok the comparison to the range rover really sunk it home how big it is.

250k though... oof.

also... what kind of jack lift does it come with?

[u/the_lamou]

I'm going to admit my deepest, darkest secret here: I kind of desperately want one. I'm usually the first one decrying large cars and SUVs. I think the Range Rover Evoque is too large. I felt like I was during in side in a BMW 2-series. I had no idea what to do with all the room in a Jaguar XE. But if I had $250k to spend on a car, and a place to park it, I would totally have this in my driveway.

[u/RoosterDentures]

There's "compensating for a small penis" and then there's this, it's a rolling gender change for females.

[u/cnhkd6354]

Good timing. I just saw one for the first time in-person today. International student at my university was driving one. Oh the comments he got from passerby.

[u/Creativeusername833]

Saw one recently driving around LA https://imgur.com/a/xfs1Z

[u/Doug-DeMuro]

Man, this was a fun video to shoot. Thanks for posting, /u/Nay2003!

[u/ArritzJPC96]

Why does the audio keep switching from clear to noisy during the drive?