Gadgetory

whether you're a Russian Petro crook or the world's most moneyed soccer mom your car is here let's drive the 2013 Mercedes g63 AMG check the tech now because I'm neither a petrol crook nor a well moneyed soccer mom onion an accessory mercedes-benz does not offer luckily it's cheap a bag because being seen in this thing is downright embarrassing I mean I spent several days in it primarily in communities where Ferraris turbo Panamera's and convertible Bentley's are coming and they were driving by me mouthing the word dick the vehicle has not changed much since 1979 making it the oldest platform that Mercedes still sells it's an old military ride in fact the US Marines just bought 150 of them now normally I give you some spotter tips on how to identify the vehicles that we shoot this one should be relatively easy it's really tall it's really square it's got exposed external hinges and it's unforgiving in its size and mass they only make one version for consumers these days it's what they call this long wheelbase wagon that actually has four doors and a second row but it's not exactly a cargo hauler it doesn't flatten down to haul sheet rock or plywood it just lets you put more stuff in the back like ak-47s if you're on assignment and that back door swings charmingly like a barn door not lifting up like a lift gates now spot the AMG version by the big five-spoke alloys the badge work that calls out the engine we'll get to that in a minute and these audacious dual side pipes who does that anymore now before we get to any of the tech your first indication that this car is riddled with practical quirkiness is down here either the world's smallest basketball net or someone left their codpiece here to dry in fact it's a cup holder and you might laugh until you see at work it's actually brilliant because it takes all the vibration of the road out of your coffee so nothing ever splashes out of there I love these people how'd they ever lose that war okay under the electronics command display seven-inch non touch it's a Mercedes they don't want the fingerprints on the screen nothing in here is dramatically new in terms of tech but it's all standard for this price it better be the nav system looks really good they keep upgrading the map quality they do a decent job with 3d buildings you can also get Google search and Google Street View on here with the mercedes benz mb apps suite which is free for three months then you got to pay for it that will include web search google local search with Street View as I mentioned Yelp ratings Facebook and also the ability to send destinations to the car we've reviewed it before it works pretty well now in terms of media all the hits of modern tech are here in a few that aren't hits your media interface on the screen there is actually this set of pigtails in the console you've got an iOS 30 pin on there right now here's a female aux I believe you can swap this out for other connectors you've also got USB down here right next to it you've got bluetooth streaming as well 10 gigabytes of the hard driver available for media and there's a card reader in here somewhere but I would never use that so I didn't go looking and of course AM and FM radio both have HD on them Satellite Radio's in here as well one way to go on the audio here it's going to be stocked with Harman Kardon Logic 7 5.1 support as well 450 Watts 12 speakers around the cabin nothing to option or modify there now in terms of driver assistance tech Mercedes likes to assume you know how to drive so most of it is passive we have adaptive cruise control to set distance and speed there's blind spot warnings they use these little lit up triangles in the mirror there's no correction and there's no lane departure or correction for that either camera tech on this car is relatively pedestrian you've got to backup which is very handy except you've got a spare hanging off the rump and it's very hard to judge the distance of that thing that's right up in the foreground of the camera overhead a steel sunroof no silly glass moonroof you're not gonna open this thing up for a breeze you're gonna open it all the way so some muddled splash off those big tires and get in your hair all you're gonna leave it closed so the bullets ricochet off the roof another serious oddity in this guy is the flat glass you may not notice this in the car you drive that's always been this way but you have curved glass for the most part and a sloping greenhouse this guy's got flat walls and flat glass in them see that big reflection that's our camera light looking right back at you when you're driving you see odd reflections of the traffic on that side of the vehicle so you look over and for a second you think you've got traffic floating next to you it's a little unnerving do you get used to it all over cities raves about this shifter being a wonderful piece of AMG innovation I don't see how it looks more to me like Prius innovation adapted to a Mercedes it's one of these little delicate electronic detent shifters for reverse neutral and drive but then for some reason Park is a button why not make that part of the detents so I have one set of behaviors to control the drivetrain in this car that just sounds like a bad idea to mix it up like that and I hate this little Comfort Sport manual button I like what it does I hate how it does it it's tiny it's hard to find it's got no actual finger recognition without looking for it and it does something critical put you in a different drive mode put that up here into the paddles on the wheel make it big by the shifter but that is silly now if you think that the g63 is sublime here's where it starts to get ridiculous in the engine bay this guy's got a five and a half litre twin-turbo AMG v8 yeah and as you can see lovingly handcrafted by old buddy Sasha building her these are all made by hand beautiful motors I don't know if it's the most brilliant engine in a vehicle like this I would love to see a big brawny diesel they do that but not in the AMG version so here's what we've got 536 horsepower 560 foot-pounds of torque it could lift this thing straight up let alone down the road of course we weigh 5,600 some odd pounds here zero to sixty and 5.3 seconds is amazing for that reason alone if not because of the big square profile of the animal where it all comes out in the wash rather badly is the mpg 1214 that probably means 10 real-world yeah no gas guzzler tax oh not because it isn't a gas guzzler but because it's a light truck and they're exempt from gas guzzler regulations all this power always goes out through a 7-speed Sport automatic again a weird thing in a vehicle that is so off-road centric and does it drive all four wheels of course it does through not one not two but three lockable differentials if this thing had eight wheels it would drive them all in fact they actually make a six five six on this but that's another video let's go for a ride well I don't know if I could possibly flex this vehicle it's so damn off-road capable think about it twin-turbo two banks of four cylinders each and that big v8 we've got body-on-frame construction two solid axles three locking diffs if you need heavier gear than this it's probably gonna get delivered get a c-17 you know it's the most eerie about taking this thing off road nothing squeaks nothing rattles this really is a bank vault on wheels now on pavement this thing prints tank it's built like one but you also get a lot of road feedback like one the vibration and noise make it frankly tedious to drive on an everyday basis and that barn burning engine is very muted in any of the automatic modes but drop it into manual and get on those paddles and everything changes it's a vicious bigboy as is that exhaust note that you would much more expect coming out of a 63 Vette than a 2013 Benz okay let's price this guy pretty simple 135 grand right around there delivered and there ain't no options to speak of not seen that style everything's in there already but there are some additional costs about 70 grand for a rose gold Audemars Piguet because you're a petro crook and that's what you wear or 15 cents for a bag that's how I roll