The Gelandewagen, better known to the world as the G-Wagen, or colloquially known as the G, is one of the most famous avatars from the German automotive giants Mercedes Benz. To be accurate with the facts, the G Wagon was manufactured by Magna Styre, the Austrian based automotive manufacturer formerly known by the name, Styre-Daimler-Puch with their headquarters in Graz Austria. Here is a brief history of the Gelandewagen and one of the proud owner of the original first batch import to India, the rare of the rarest, 1989 first batch import Mercedes Benz Gelandewagen 300 GD and the proud owner, Mr Hani Mustafa, one of the well known automotive journalist.
First things first, lets have a word about the man, Hani Mustafa. Hani Mustafa, dear to south Indians by the name 'Hanikka' is an automotive enthusiast, expert, food lover and one of the most famous automotive journalist around the globe. He is one of the veterans of the game with massive experience under his belt and tonnes of knowledge about the game he is into. One of the Top ten automobile journalists in India and the Most Followed Auto Journalist in Southern India. Hani Mustafa is the Editor in charge of the automotive show in YouTube, Flywheel Automotive By Hani Mustafa, where does the job as an automotive journalist. Also, the cherry on the top is that he is one of the six Indians and the only one from south India in the jury board of the World Car Awards who elects the World Car Of The Year, and the Indian iteration, Indian Car Of The Year Awards. Hani's love for cars started young, yeah as soon as he can read and write he began reading and talking cars all around. Its that enthusiasm from the very young age that made him one of the shining stars of the game. Hani Mustafa has written a gorgeous article about how he found this gem of a machine. He is a columnist, content creator for YouTube, and channel show host, juror of World Car Awards, Indian COTY awards More than that he is a motivational speaker spreading positivity all around.
Yeah that is it about the man and now more about the machine, the great car from the German giants, Mercedes Daimler Motors. To be more accurate with the words, I should say that the G Wagen is sold by Mercedes and manufactured by Magna Styre. The story starts way back in the early 1970's when the shah of Iraq asked the company to make an off-roader for military purpose. Magna Steyr was all into it and made a beast out of it. The very first model was carved out from wood and then turned into a real life one. Also during the production works, the test mules were tested through worlds most extreme weather conditions of the four different weather conditions. When things were done at the production facility of Graz Austria, the very first example was rolled out of the production line by 1972, with all the masculinity and daredevil look of a military utility vehicle. But the shah of Iran never came back to take the delivery of his military fleet. He passed away and as a result, these cars were sold to the Argentinian Army, who milked every ounce of the car and used it the right way. The very first G had something made it unique at its time and was passed down the generation line, the features which makes a G Wagen what it is, like the boxy design, body-on-frame construction and one of the rarest of its time, fully locking differentials. The military version, as said earlier was gone to the Argentinean army, but Magna Styre had other plans for this car. Apart from discontinuing the model as it is, they just revamped the whole thing and rolled of the production line as the civilian edition, which was in 1979.
Within the next ten years they rolled out the civilian version and two generations of the Gelandewagen, namely the W460 and the W461. Also within these years they have given the car significant refreshments which was important from time to time. It was in 2008 that our man finds out about the hot-cake up for sale. Hani Mustafa from his younger age craved for a G-Wagen so hardly and was constantly on the search for one of the iconic piece of history for himself. It was his friend who is a used vehicles shop owner that said him about the news and the car was at their showroom at Delhi. This one, up for sale was a 1986 made, 1988 registered 300 GD, driven by a 3.0L diesel engine with four speed manual gearbox, third face-lift, the Puch Edition Coupe one of the first batches of civilian edition rolled out of the production facility. This specific G Wagen was imported to India after three years it rolled out to the showroom, 1989 and have been used as many officials' car. This one was initially used as the embassy car for the Canadian embassy and was then used as the embassy car for the Mauritius embassy, then it was gone into the hands of an exporter from 2000 and he was at the time the owner of the registration and kept the documents until it was passed down to Hani in the year 2008. Hani was pretty impressed by the condition of the G and proceeded ahead to buy the G. He was delighted beyond words finally to get hands to one of his dream cars that he has carved so much for. After purchasing, he went on to be pretty adventurous and drove the all the way back to home, Kozhikkode, with his family, and as I mentioned earlier, he has written a gorgeous article about the journey beyond 2900 kilometres.
Click here to read that.
After getting home with the G he didn't just put it up like a show-piece, yeah nothing sadder than caging a beast that craves an outing a day, he made some interesting modifications and complete restoration which was something that the G craved for, which made it better. He kept the overall looks completely stock and classy but repainted it matte black from the frozen white, and installed headlamp guard and indicator guard. He also changed the wheels and imported new bigger and tougher wheels from United Kingdom. With the introduction of bigger wheels, Hani also built up new bullet studded matte black alloy wheels. Also he has done some re-works on the upholstery on the interior. But what I personally like is the way he has kept the G stock with the looks apart from giving it some of the necessary updates more than an upgrade. His care for his car says it all about his personality, also this shows how much he craved for the car. That is what a true petrol-head is, no matter what car a true petrol-head has, they will car it like a family member giving it the out most care and respect it needs. Now even though the current generation 'G-Classes' looks like a Gelandewagen, for me they are more like a luxury toy and a status symbol, the real DNA of the G Wagen was gone in 1994 when they took out the name Gelandewagen was renamed as the G-Class as per the new naming structure. Yeah the new Gs are comfortable and luxurious but, as they say, old is always gold. The real beast.
