OMG stopppp, in a good way
Do not make the mistake of thinking of the G-Class as a diesel-fuelled farm vehicle painted brown. Turns out it’s actually a Hollywood A-list social-media sensation on wheels. By Mark Walton
The angry stare, the slab sides, the cliff-face nose and that gigantic plateau of a bonnet – the modern G-Wagen has a sturdy, imperious presence on the road, which probably accounts for its appeal among Hollywood celebrities. If you had a dozen stalkers and a mosquito cloud of paparazzi following you everywhere, maybe you too would want a car that screams ‘DON’T MESS WITH ME!!!’ over a loudhailer.
This, in turn, explains why a generation of social-media-addicted 20-somethings absolutely love our G350d, even though it simultaneously rubs salt into all their environmental anxieties. My older daughter (a millennial) often posts pictures of my test cars, but nothing can get a reaction like the
G. The comments – and these are genuine – run along the lines of: ‘That sh*t is SWANK AF’ and ‘OMG stopppp’.
The G’s always attracted
A-listers, but it was when the Kardashians got involved that its star appeal went stratospheric. Back in 2018, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian posted pictures of themselves standing on the rooftops of their G-Class Mercs. Soon after that Kanye bought Kim a lime-green G500. Between them, those four Royal Ks of Reality TV have over 360 million followers on Instagram. It’s fair to say that Mercedes loves the Kardashians.
But it’s not just on social media that our G-Class has what I now call the ‘OMG stopppp’ effect. Driving around our sleepy little market town, I’m amazed at how many people stop and stare, smile and point.
By far the most bizarre conversation I’ve had was when I went to pick up my younger daughter from Brownies one evening. As the girls were let out of the village hall, the leader – Brown Owl – unexpectedly stopped me to talk about the Mercedes.
‘Ooh, is that a G-Wagen I’ve seen you driving around?’ she asked, with a knowing smile. ‘Gorgeous,’ she purred. She’s a bespectacled middle-aged church warden, just like Kim Kardashian. Embarrassingly I said ‘Yeah, it’s great, apart from the colour. I mean who would ever choose a brown car!?’ Her face fell a little. ‘We drive a brown car,’ she said.
Brown Owl. Should have guessed.
20-somethings love it, even though it simultaneously rubs salt into their anxieties