Mercedes-Benz W463

The W463 is the luxury series of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the first to appear of two series built side by side with the plainer W461. It was launched in September 1989 at the Frankfurt motor show to take over from the W460, and it was built together with the Austrian firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch at its Graz plant, with some markets selling it as the Puch G. Its body was almost the same as the W460, but it had a grille painted in body colour, chrome inserts, wheel arch extensions as standard and a dashboard and trim taken from the W124 saloon, with leather and wood available. The big mechanical change was permanent four-wheel drive. It began with four engines, two petrol and two diesel, among them the 230 GE and the 250 GD, and over its long life added the first turbodiesel G-Class in 1992, a V8 in 1993 and many later engines and special series. The Italian article gives a first phase from 1989 to the end of 2017 and a renewed range from 2018 that Mercedes-Benz still counts within the W463 line.