2025 Mercedes-AMG G63 review VIDEO: Quick drive
There’s an electric G-Wagen coming, but rejoice in the lunacy of the 2025 Mercedes-AMG G63 in all its petrol-powered excess. Trent Nikolic tests the updated G63 at its international launch ahead of its local arrival in late 2024.
- Revised suspension is a masterpiece
- Engine and exhaust noise remain a highlight
- Ride quality is brilliant on any surface
- The two engines we don't get are fantastic
- Visual upgrades are for trainspotters only
- No jumps on my commute from home to the Drive office
2025 Mercedes-Benz G63 Wagon
I can assure you that – despite what the manufacturers would have us believe – there’s a certain lack of character that electric vehicles inevitably suffer from. There’s depth in their technical prowess, substance in their performance capability, and genius in the way they have taken propulsion to another realm. But, and it’s a big but, there is a distinct lack of character when you subtract engine noise and exhaust notes from the equation.
As Pulp Fiction's The Wolf so famously said, just because you are a character doesn’t mean that you have character…
I suspect The Wolf, in all his immaculate-suited glory, would love the 2025 Mercedes-AMG G63, and all that it represents. If you’re a little more diminutive, though, and if you don’t like engine noise, there could be an electric G-Class in your future. Now, though, let’s focus on the thunderous G63.
What you’re looking at here is the G’s most significant update in six years. There’s new technology in the specification list, tweaked styling and the addition of mild hybrid smarts for the first time under the skin of a G63. While softening the styling, Mercedes-Benz has sharpened the performance capability, if you will.
The current generation was first unleashed in 2018, and has become something of an aspirational purchase in Australia, more accustomed to the inner-city school run than dust and dirt. Which is why there’s delicious irony in me launching one off a jump somewhere between 90km/h and 100km/h on a closed course, but more on that in a minute.
The new G-Class will arrive Down Under in the latter part of 2024, and the AMG G63 is the only petrol-powered variant you’ll be able to buy locally. Your other option will be the electric G580 version, of course, with the impressive G450d and G500 not available in our market. A short drive in the new diesel inline-six at launch illustrated how impressive that powertrain is.
The G63 continues to be powered by AMG’s bellowing twin-turbocharged petrol V8 measuring in at 4.0 litres. Delivering 430kW and 860Nm, you’re never left wanting in any situation, but the addition of a 48-volt mild hybrid system has bolstered those outputs even further, adding up to 15kW and 200Nm under hard acceleration (though peak outputs remain the same). Perhaps more importantly, the system allows the G63 to coast with the engine off at a constant speed.
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and to assume the slab-sided styling translates to brick-like performance would be a mistake. 0–100km/h takes just 4.4 seconds, so it’s one-tenth quicker than the old model, or 4.3 seconds with the AMG Performance Package added.
The nine-speed automatic is snappy, too, even in regular ‘Comfort’ mode. You also get Eco, Sport, Individual and Trail with its own Rock and Sand off-road modes as well. We conducted a short test of the see-through bonnet display via the 360-degree camera, and the virtual view it supplies is particularly handy off-road when you’re driving into the unknown through sharp turns or drop-offs.
The optional AMG Performance Package also includes what Mercedes-AMG calls ‘semi-active’ suspension. Gone are roll bars, replaced by a hydraulic system that can vary the compression and rebound settings for the dampers at each corner. Its aim is to reduce body roll, and stabilise control of the body through bumpy sections of road to not only improve in-cabin comfort, but also increase off-road capability thanks to greater articulation. The standard G63 still gets regular adaptive dampers, though.
On the subject of off-road capability, the mad G63 remains genuinely capable in the rough stuff – despite the fact that I can’t imagine too many Aussies spending close to $400K to beat their G63 up. Standard equipment included three diff locks, low-range gearing, independent front/sold rear axles, 241mm ground clearance, 700mm wading depth and handy approach and departure angles.
If you’re looking at the photos thinking the G63 looks familiar, you’d be right, because the styling changes are minimal. The most obvious being the tweaked front and rear bumpers, but there’s also new trim around the windscreen, which is designed to reduce noise on the move as well as enhance aero efficiency. The rear spoiler lip is also subtly different, along with new wheel designs, while under the skin there’s new insulation, once again directed at improving on-the-move comfort.
Final specifications and pricing for Australia will be announced closer to launch.
Step up into the G63’s classy cabin and you’re met with a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display and 12.3-inch central infotainment screen. Response to touch inputs was snappy enough on our short test at launch, but we’ll delve further into that as well as the smartphone connectivity once the G63 lands locally. It does get wireless smartphone connectivity for both Apple and Android, as well as augmented-reality satellite navigation and USB-C ports.
Second-row occupants get their own 11.6-inch screens, and MBUX High-End Rear Seat Entertainment, ensuring there will be no cries of ‘are we there yet?’. There’s a lot of technology to unpack – as there is these days with any new high-end vehicle – and we didn’t get the time to sample most of it during our launch experience. Add that to the list for the local launch as well.
The front seats are excellent, with the same commanding view of the road ahead, and upright driving position we expect, with visibility excellent as well. There’s no hiding the G63’s off-road heritage, even within this performance-focused AMG package.
There’s room for adults in the second row too, this is a large four-wheel-drive after all, and few cross-continent road trips could be undertaken with more style than in the G63. Does it even have a natural competitor? I think not. It’s such a unique take on the genre that there really isn’t anything to compare it to.
First impressions on the move are that the new G63 feels, responds, and rides vastly differently to the outgoing model. It’s more comfortable, certainly, but there’s less body movement and roll, and ride quality is improved.
Sure, if you go thundering into a tight corner too fast and try to hook in late, realising the error of your ways, you’ll know that you’re at the wheel of a 4WD heavyweight. But, such silliness aside, the new G63 delivers a revised driving experience from behind the wheel.
All of the on-road presence and enjoyment of the old model remain, just with an added dash of comfort and long-haul practicality. While there’s the requisite carved-from-stone feel from behind the wheel, there’s new driver engagement in the revised G63, which only improves the experience.
That the suspension can do such an incredible job of managing 2565kg is impressive in its own right. I found myself constantly shaking my head trying to work out how the G63 was riding as comfortably as it was on roads that closely mimicked what we experience on a country drive in Australia.
That translates off-road too, where even on its standard tyres at road pressures, the G63 makes mincemeat of a track that wouldn’t be out of place on a WRC special stage. My pilot for the first few laps is AMG engineer Tobias, who has tested the suspension system around the world on every surface you can think of. So he knows what he’s doing then.
I’m pressed back into the seat as Tobias attacks the off-road course with the sort of tenacity that has me wincing in mechanical sympathy. “It’s a G-Wagen, no problem,” Tobias assures me as he power slides through an off-camber corner, while advising me to stick to the inside when I’m driving. “The car will want to go off the edge on the outside of the corner,” he says. Right. Understood.
As we accelerate uphill to what I think is a plateau, Tobias keeps the pedal pressed. We’re piling on serious speed at this point. “This is the jump here,” he says. “When you’re driving you want to hit it around 80km/h…” Jump? In a G-Wagen? A 2.5-tonne G-Wagen? You’ve got to be kidding right?
And then I sense the G63 get light as we launch off the peak, landing impossibly smoothly. I’m trying to get my head around what we’ve just done, and how comfortably, while Tobias is being kind to both of us, by underestimating our weight and adding it to the heft of the G63 to illustrate just how easy that was.
Key details | 2025 Mercedes-Benz G63 Wagon |
Engine | 4.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 |
Power | 430kW @ 6000rpm |
Torque | 860Nm @ 2500–3500rpm |
Drive type | Full-time four-wheel drive |
Transmission | 9-speed torque-converter automatic |
Weight (kerb) | 2565kg |
0–100km/h | 4.4 seconds |
Top speed | 240km/h |
I hit the jump twice at 80km/h, but on my third lap, Tobias is egging me on, despite the needle climbing beyond 90km/h. Keeping my eyes ahead is obviously sensible at this point, so I’ve stopped watching the speedo. “I think we’re well past 80.” Tobias is having none of that, though. “Keep that speed, it’s perfect, we can go faster,” he says laughing. As the G63 once again launches skyward, I’m already thinking that this was never on my bucket list, because I didn’t even consider it an option.
Jumping aside, the way you can grab the G63 by the scruff of the neck and thrash it around a scrabbly, off-camber, in parts wet, uneven and slippery off-road circuit is mind-blowing. Five laps in, I’m still trying to compute how hard you can push, with the leash lengthening in typical AMG fashion as you tweak the drive modes and settings. It’s riotous fun, accompanied by one of the most sublime soundtracks this side of an Ennio Morricone masterpiece. Describing the whole experience as an assault on the senses is an understatement.
A quick turn off the circuit and down a very steep drop, we’re headed for a nasty incline. Low-range selected, diff locks in, and the G63 goes from WRC wannabe to rock-climbing maestro. The breadth of its capability is as broad as it is unnecessary. The fact that the motoring world doesn’t ‘need’ a 4WD like this doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist, it’s that simple.
It’s pertinent to go back to the question of whether there is a competitive set. Is there one? I don’t think so. You couldn’t mistreat any other high-performance 4WD with such abandon, and then cruise in luxury back into town without so much as a creak from the chassis. Some are capable off-road, others are excellent on-road. None do both the way a G63 does.
Local testing awaits, although without the air beneath the tyres I suspect.