Mercedes-Benz W460

The W460 is the first generation of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the angular, rugged off-road vehicle built from 1979 to 1991 by Mercedes-Benz together with the Austrian firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch. It began as a joint venture called GFG, the Geländefahrzeug Gesellschaft, and production started on 10 February 1979; from autumn 1981 each partner used its own badge, so the same vehicle was also sold as the Puch G. It came in three body styles from the start, an open soft-top with a short wheelbase, a closed short station wagon and a long four-door station wagon, with a van added in September 1979. It had a separate steel ladder frame, rigid axles and part-time four-wheel drive, and at launch four engines were offered, two petrol (230 G and 280 GE) and two diesel (240 GD and 300 GD). It joined the Mercedes-Benz car price list in 1985. A 280 GE driven by Jacky Ickx and Claude Brasseur won the Paris-Dakar rally in January 1983. In 1991 the W460 was replaced by two descendants, the plainer W461 and the richer W463.