Mercedes-Benz W461

The W461 is the utility series of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, one of two series built side by side with the richer W463 and produced from 1992 to 2014 together with the Austrian firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch. The code was used for the G-Class meant only for professional work, and it was sold through the Mercedes-Benz commercial and industrial vehicle network rather than the car dealers; Daimler-Benz had already used the W461 code for small military lots from 1981, and the official debut is traced back to the end of 1989. It kept the plain, spartan character of the earlier W460, with a part-time four-wheel drive that could be engaged, and it was built as an ambulance, a pick-up, a military vehicle and in other forms, with wheelbases that included 3.12 and 3.4 metres. It started with two engines, the 230 GE petrol and the 290 GD diesel, which in 1993 were renamed G 230 and G 290 Diesel. It was dropped in 2001 and reinstated in 2003 with permanent four-wheel drive taken from the W463, and the G 280 CDI diesel arrived in 2007.