G Class / Wagons, are they all dodgy?

[XJSJohn]

Wife expressed an interest in a G Class / Wagon (probably because she spends too much time looking at youtwitface or whatever socials are on trend now) so i had a look in the classifieds.

I have never seen so many properly shady, run a mile from it yet very expensive cars of a single marque and model.

when i check MOT history, they all seem to have a litany of faults, and milage all over the shop suggesting an almost ritualistic annual milage re-adjustment.

Then there is all the left hand drive ones on the UK market, that curiously all seem to have arrived on our shores in the last 2 or 3 years ago (are these Russian Cars that have been slipped out of the country before the embargo's? )

Anyway, not a car that is to my taste, but will probably have to go through the motions of a test drive at least before i can move her off to something more sensible, like an SVO Range Rover perhaps .... it might at least be more reliable, and have a less chequered past ... just.

Anyone here actually own one (a modern LWB rather than an ex farmer / Austrian army one) and can explain their virtues?

edit to add i will caveat that i have been looking at the Sub £50k onesm which sounds insane to me, but does seem to be the "budget / entry" level

Edited by XJSJohn on Thursday 1st May 09:44

[Benson11]

To add to all your good points above, the pre-2018 facelift cars with a steering box also don't drive very well so maybe this isn't going to go too far for you!

Good points about G-Class is they have a solid build quality feel to them, incredible off road ability (not that anyone uses this), good towing capacity and probably best of all, if you clean one and look after it they really hold their money. Im sure in the future clean cars without loads of spammy modifications will do well

[James B]

I had a G63 for a year and to be honest it was terrible. My ex-wife really wanted it and we chopped in our absolutely brilliant Cayenne Hybrid for it. It was a terrible mistake. The thing was fast and was quite hilarious to drive in a straight line but the boat-like handling and desire to understeer off the road was somewhat interesting. The steering was awful. It felt like twice the amount of steering input was needed just to navigate a roundabout.
Add to that the heavy doors and extremely heavy rear door especially on those with a spare wheel and then the overall fuel consumption (average 8mpg) it really felt like a bad choice versus what else was out there. We chopped it (thankfully for exactly what we paid almost year prior) against a TDV8 L405 RR.

[Timbo_S2]

I've owned a G350d for four years now. Only wanted to have it a year to scratch an itch...

Yes, there's a lot of crap. Lots and lots dressed up to look newer. Service history is seen as somewhat of in inconvenience. Find a good UK model thats been looked after, and they're not that bad to run. I get about 25mpg with moxed driving.