G-wagen is not easy to live with...if you don't know what to expect. It rides rough. It can get quite noisy on a windy day. Fuel economy is not its strong points. It is narrow on the inside. Ergonomics is not its strong points. Remember, it is a civilian model of a military truck. Comfort is not its priorities. Handling, acceleration, and braking are not great.
Otherwise, it is a great truck!! I love mine. Quality is superb. I am most impress with the leather...ordinary looking, but it is tough. After 60k miles, the leather still look like new! No creasing. No cracking. The interior materials are also nice...all places are soft to touch and scratch resistant. It is built like a tank or bank vault.
Here's my story: I moved to Houston like five years ago. Before that, I had different cars, mostly off-road oriented, like Nissan Safari, Nissan Patrol, Toyota Land Cruiser 80, 100.. All tuned up to the maximum off- road performance. I loved them all, each was the best one ever at the time I had one.
In Houston, However, I decided that the ride quality should be my first priority, and my best choice was Lexus GX 470. It was a brand new model at that time, and I was the car that I thought was going to be perfect for me... Rather big inside, but not too much like LX470, great interior, super soft drive (adjustable), japanese style perfect body design... I got one fully loaded.. I loved everything about that car, but every time driving it, I felt like something was wrong, could not figure out what was it.. Until one day I came to pick my son from pre-school.. I saw 15 other GX's parked at the same spot, and then I realized that I just joined the "soccer mom club". Ever since, I could not drive that car any more.. Again, the car was great, lexus quality, there was nothing wrong with it technically, It just was not for me.
One day, I went to the grocery store to buy some yogurt, came back a few hours later in the Range Rover Sport supercharged.....
For the following three years, I was the happiest man on earth.. I put Overfinch body kit on it, put Asanti 22' wheels and other nice looking gadgets!! It was the car for me!! loved it. Never took it off the road, never needed to in Houston... With all the negative publicity about LR/RR, my RRS had just one problem - rear license plate lights fell out ones. That was it.. I never took it off-road though.
About a year ago, I started dreaming of a different car, about G. Read all I could find about it, good and bad... The best ever expression I got from my friend in Moscow who used to have G.. He said that there were two most happiest days in his live, the day he bought his G and the day he sold it!!! It had mostly to do with the Moscow realities, G is by far the most popular car among car thieves , they call it one week car, you buy it, enjoy for one week and then it's gone!!
Anyway, I got my G55 now, and it came strait after RRS. I can only say, I LOVE THAT CAR.. I never hated RRS, but hardly ever think of it anymore.
With my G, I am trying to find any excuse to go out and drive it, anywhere, just to hear the sound of the engine, and get this feeling of driving "THE TANK IN THE BUSINESS SUIT".. How long will this love last, I don't know, and less I care, I am enjoying it now...
My recommendation is to go with what you feel like right now, don't listen to all these technical compare charts, after all, they way you feel driving it, is what matters. If you don't like it later, you can always sell it.
Konstantin
