A German carmaker and an Austrian industrial group set out in 1972 to build one off-road vehicle for state customers, businesses and private owners alike. Daimler-Benz AG and Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG began that cooperation in 1972, according to Mercedes-Benz’s own development history of the G-Class. The vehicle that came out of it went on to serve the German Federal Army in large numbers: the same history records that the Bundeswehr received 12,500 vehicles of the “Wolf” model.
The record comes from Mercedes-Benz’s G-Class Governmental Business site, which covers the G for the state and authorities. Its timeline runs from the 1972 partnership to the current military base vehicle, and it treats the soldier’s G and the civilian G as one line of development.
The milestones-of-development page opens with 1972: “Start of cooperation between Daimler-Benz AG and Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG.” It states the goal as “development of a vehicle that sets standards on and off the road in challenging conditions for commercial and state customers and for private individuals.” The page’s introduction describes the vehicle’s path as running “from the Puch G to today’s BR464.”
Built by hand in Graz from 1979
Seven years after the partnership began, the vehicle was ready. Mercedes-Benz lists 1979 as the year of the “presentation of the G-Model from model series 460, which is manufactured completely by hand at the Graz plant.” The page describes its foundation as “a solid ladder-type frame with coil-sprung rigid axles,” offered “with two wheelbases and five different body variants.”
Austria has stayed home to the vehicle. The Austrian company Mercedes-Benz G GmbH says on its corporate page that the icon has been manufactured in Austria since its birth in 1979.
Government work began almost at once. The milestones page records delivery in 1980 “to the German riot police and the Federal Border Guard,” in long-wheelbase 280 GE and short-wheelbase 230 G form. In 1982, per the same page, came the “launch of the 230 GE and winning of the Swiss Army tender.”
The G also made its name in competition early. Mercedes-Benz notes that in 1983 Jacky Ickx and Claude Brasseur won the passenger-car category of the Paris-Dakar Rally in a 280 GE. By 1985, the company says, the entire model series 460 was given two differential locks as standard.
The W461 and 12,500 Wolf vehicles
The G took a new designation at the start of the 1990s. Mercedes-Benz records that in 1990 “W460 becomes W461 (230 GE and 290 GD),” and lists 1992 as the year “the model series 461 is introduced.” The same 1992 entry carries the Bundeswehr figure: “The German Federal Army receives 12,500 vehicles of the ‘Wolf’ model.” The page does not break that total down by year.
Mercedes-Benz’s separate page on model series 461 describes what those base vehicles were built to do. It says the 461 was offered as a Station Wagon 4×4 and a Chassis Cab 4×4 and was suitable as “a command and multipurpose vehicle” or “a people carrier or radio vehicle.” The 461 base vehicles “were produced since 1992,” the page says, and were “finally replaced by the new models of the model series 464 in 2021 after almost 30 years.”
The 461’s drivetrain kept evolving. In 1998, per the milestones page, the naturally aspirated 290 GD was replaced by a 290 GD Turbodiesel with direct injection; “the 120 hp 5-cylinder turbodiesel is exclusively available with automatic transmission.” The 270 CDI with a common-rail diesel followed in 2001. In 2006, Mercedes-Benz says, the German Federal Army updated its fleet with the long-wheelbase W461 Station G 270 CDI “Greenliner” and the G 300 “Greenliner.”
From six wheels to the 464
Export customers stretched the platform further. The company says that in 2010, “as part of a tender for Australia the product range of model series 461 is extended to include a 6×6,” a variant it describes as not previously available in the official and state sector.
The line’s current chapter opened in 2021. Mercedes-Benz says it presented the series 464, “the new G-Class for Rescue and Special Operations,” at a world premiere in the G-Class Experience Center in Graz. Per the company’s record, the 464 is the series that replaced the 461 base vehicles, ending a run of almost 30 years that began the year the Bundeswehr’s 12,500 Wolf vehicles appear in the timeline.
Top image: A 1993 Mercedes-Benz G-Class in Bundeswehr military police (Feldjäger) markings, now privately owned. Image Credit: AlfvanBeem — CC0 / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.