Dave Phillips

T he Voca l Yokel

Early in November 1971, aged 15 years and ten months, I applied for my provisional driving licence. I was looking forward to my sixteenth birthday – on January 3, 1972 – when I would be able to stick L-plates on a motorcycle (maximum capacity 250cc) and hit the road. My best mates, John and Andy, had already bought Honda 175s and my plan was to do the same.

You can imagine my excitement when my licence arrived a week later. But they say you should never count your chickens before they hatch, and never was this more true than in late November 1971, when Ted Heath’s government pushed through a new law, changing the rules for teenage riders. Sixteen-yearolds would be restricted to 50cc mopeds until the age of 17, when they could move up to a 250cc. The new law would come into effect on January 1 – just two agonising days before my birthday.

Of course, my world fell apart. Instead of a two-cylinder four-stroke capable of 80 mph, I was stuck with a daft little 49cc two-stroke limited to 28 mph – and with pedals! The shame of it. It was a Puch Maxi and it was my transport for a very long year until I finally got my Honda 175.

“What’s that got to do with Land Rovers?” I can hear you ask. Well, quite a bit, actually. That little Puch was the first step on the automotive ladder that would draw me inexorably towards Land Rovers. And it was built by the same company that can claim to have created the only vehicle more capable off-road than a Defender – and one which has been in production for quite a bit longer.

I’m talking about the Mercedes G- Class, which is also known as the G-wagen. The G stands for Geländewagen, which is German for cross- country vehicle; the Wagen stands for vehicle. So translated literally it is the Cross- Country Vehicle-vehicle – presumably so good they named it twice.

Well, actually it is very good. I have reason to have a soft spot for G-wagens. Back in the spring of 1999 I was driving across Botswana’s famed Okavango Delta in a near-new Defender 110, powered by a Td5 engine. All was going well until I waded across a remote stretch of river. It wasn’t any old stretch of river, mind: this one was inhabited by crocodiles and hippos.

Did you know that more people get killed in Africa by hippos than by crocs? It’s a little-known fact, but it’s one my travelling companion cheerfully told me when the Defender got stuck halfway across the river.

We had to decide what to do next. Do we get out and wade across the croc- and hippo-infested river to seek help? Or do we sit in the middle of the wilderness and die of starvation?

It’s a tough call, and happily we didn’t have to decide, because salvation came from an unlikely quarter. Although we hadn’t seen any fellow human beings for over 24 hours, we suddenly heard a diesel engine approaching. It was a Mercedes G-wagen, driven by a group of German tourists. They spoke perfect English and, clocking our predicament, calmly debated how they were going to rescue us. It was decided we were too far from the bank to be recovered with their powerful winch, so they engaged all three ( yes, three) of the vehicle’s diff locks, attached a rope to the Defender’s front dumb iron and pulled us out as easily as uncorking a bottle of wine.

So, yes, the main reason I have a soft spot for G-wagens is because one probably saved my life. But I also like them because they are good.

The G-wagen started life in the 1970s in a collaboration between DaimlerBenz and Steyr-damiler-puch, in Austria, while Mercedes-benz engineers in Stuttgart, Germany, helped with the design and testing. It entered production in 1979. By 1981, it had automatic transmission, air conditioning and a winch as standard. It was hand-built, but by 1986 50,000 had been sold. By 1992, 100,000.

The vehicle has seen many changes over the years, but it is still in production today. It is still largely hand-built and looks just like the vehicle that started it all in 1979. It still sits on a ladder chassis and is every bit as big and boxy as it ever was.

This is a vehicle that just keeps reinventing itself, but never loses touch with what it has always been. More importantly, Mercedes has never lost faith in it.

Make no mistake about it: Land Rover could – and should – have continued adapting and updating Defender. But unlike Mercedes, they didn’t have the will to do so.

A new Mercedes G- Class will set you back about £90,000. To me that represents better value than a tarted-up secondhand Defender for £150,000.

“The main reason why I have a soft spot for G-wagens is because one saved my life. But I also like them because they are good.”