Mercedes-Benz AMG G63 Review & Prices

If you want to make a statement, there are few cars that stand out from the crowd as well as a Mercedes-AMG G63. This is the halo model of the Mercedes G-Class range, and it takes the already-impressive SUV and adds to it a bombastic V8 engine, a glitzy AMG makeover and a squint-inducing price tag.

Buying an AMG G63 as your daily driver is a bit like buying a JCB to dig your flowerbeds - complete overkill, frankly, but you’ll definitely have a lot of fun behind the controls and you’ll get the neighbours talking.

The AMG G63 is an alternative to any number of super-SUVs - whether they be more luxurious ones such as the Bentley Bentayga or Range Rover, or sporty ones such as the Lamborghini Urus or Aston Martin DBX. The most similar in spirit is probably the Land Rover Defender Octa - another off-roader turned sports-suv.

It’s likely the prospective G63 buyer will want to stand out, so it may find itself on a shortlist with supercars, coupes or convertibles as well as other SUVs - as long as it’s expensive and exclusive.

The AMG G63 is based on the regular G-Class, or G-Wagen if you’re feeling retro. While this is styled to look just like the original G-Wagen, a military vehicle from the 1970s, it’s mechanically unrelated. It does, however, still utilise a separate chassis construction which makes it much more capable off-road.

To look at, you wouldn’t think the G63 was a modern car. It has square, boxy proportions which are totally different from any other SUV on sale. The headlights may be LEDs, but they’re round, and sit underneath huge separate indicator units that are an iconic feature of the G-Wagen.

Other retro touches include the spare wheel on a side-opening tailgate, and even the door handles evoke feelings of the 1970s - they’re chunky push-button affairs, and the doors themselves feel like a bank vault and require almost as much of a slam.

Thankfully, though, the interior doesn’t conjure up images of days gone past. With two huge screens for driver information and infotainment, quilted leather upholstery and just about every extra you could hope for on a car, it’s almost as luxurious as any other Mercedes model.

It’s not particularly roomy, though, which may shock you given the G63’s vast dimensions. There’s not a great deal of elbow room even in the front seats, and rear legroom is downright poor. While the boot is massive, it’s awkward to load and the shape doesn’t really lend itself to the paraphernalia of family life.

Any annoyance you may have with the G63’s practicality goes away when you start driving it, though. From the minute the 4.0-litre V8 engine fires up with a boisterous bark, you’ll find yourself with a grin on your face. The high-up driving position and good visibility mean it’s actually not too bad to drive in town, shockingly - and while other SUVs are undeniably more composed and less hard work on a twisting country road, few leave you smiling like the G63 does.

You’ll certainly need deep pockets, but if this super-SUV tickles your fancy you can get the best price by checking out our Mercedes-AMG G63 deals on Carwow, or find a great price on Mercedes-AMG G63 leasing deals. You can search for used Mercedes G-Class models for sale, as well as other used Mercedes cars for sale - and remember that Carwow can even help you to sell your old car when the time comes.

The Mercedes G-Class is pretty expensive even by the standards of super-SUVs. It starts at just a few quid shy of £190,000 - or in layman’s terms, a nice three-bed house in Coventry - and goes up to just over £208,000 for the Magno Edition range-topper.

For significantly less than that you could pick up a super-luxurious Range Rover, or the high-performance Range Rover Sport SV or Land Rover Defender Octa. It is, however, cheaper than a Lamborghini Urus or Aston Martin DBX. The truth with cars like this is that if you have to ask the price, you probably can’t afford them…

Like tapping a nail with a sledgehammer - ballistically fast and great fun, but not the most poised on a country road

In town

There’s no getting past the AMG G63’s sheer size in town - parking in tight spaces is tricky and it has a truly gigantic turning circle, so you’ll want to avoid cramped multistorey car parks or too many narrow lanes.

Assuming you’re in a town with nice, spacious roads though, the G63 isn’t too much hard work to drive. You sit up really high - much higher than in most other SUVs - which gives you a commanding view of the road ahead. Not that any other driver would be able to miss you, either visually or aurally. The engine is never quiet, but it’s not obnoxious at low speeds - and the automatic gearbox is lovely and smooth for relaxing spells in traffic.

The suspension deals pretty well with big lumps and bumps, and because the G-Class is so square it’s easy to judge where the corners are. Especially the front corners - those protruding indicator pods are designed specifically for that purpose, though more for figuring out your extremities on a taxing off-road course than trying not to scrape the neighbour’s Qashqai.

On the motorway

There’s no question of lacking power for motorways - put your foot down and you’ll be amazed by how quickly the AMG G63 heads for the horizon, courtesy of a monstrous 605hp from its twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine. It makes joining from a short sliproad or executing a decisive overtake very easy indeed.

Long-distance comfort is excellent, too. The G63’s seats are hugely comfortable and the suspension, while firm, does a great job of ironing out the worst imperfections. However, the bluff silhouette does generate a lot of wind noise, and the slow steering requires more correcting than you would do in an alternative.

Mercedes’ assisted driving features are some of the best around, though, helping take the edge off long drives. Bear in mind that even with the G63’s vast 100-litre fuel tank, though, you’d be lucky to manage more than 400 miles between fill-ups.

On a twisty road

The G63 is great fun on a country road, but it requires you to have your wits about you - and doesn’t feel anywhere near as composed as a Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX, or Range Rover Sport SV.

Mercedes has engineered a big difference in between the driving modes, so while Comfort feels soft and squidgy for motorway driving, Sport or Sport+ really stiffen the G63 up and make it feel much more purposeful.

There’s a bit of a dead zone in the steering, and the rack is quite heavy - so a series of bends requires a bit of an arm workout as you twist the wheel from side to side. The big body leans quite a bit in the bends, too, and if you’re too gratuitous with the throttle you’ll have the G63 squirming about on the exit to a corner.

It’s a million miles better than any G63 that came before it, though, and when you get yourself into a rhythm - with the exhaust on its most obnoxious setting with pops and bangs aplenty - it’s a real laugh. Just a tiring one, so you probably won’t want to blat about for too long before relenting and switching back to Comfort mode.

Of course, if your idea of a twisty road is one with a bit less Tarmac on, the G63 performs spectacularly. You get all of the off-road settings you could want, with the clever suspension and driving modes helping you rather than making things more complicated. It’s definitely up there with a Land Rover Defender Octa for prowess on the rough stuff.

Hugely plush and comfortable but nowhere near as spacious as you’d expect for a car this size

Once you’ve opened the bank vault-heavy door and clambered way up into the driver’s seat of the Mercedes G63, you may wonder where all the space has gone. The G63 is a bit of a reverse TARDIS in that regard.

Drivers of all shapes and sizes will find plenty of adjustment in the front seats, though - there’s just a little less elbow room than you might expect.

Storage up front is okay, with a wireless charging pad in the centre console, a pair of cupholders and door bins that can accommodate a litre bottle of water, but not much else. The glovebox is also quite small.

Space in the back seats

The rear seats are just as much a climb as the front ones - if you’re planning on taking elderly relatives with you, you might need to invest in a hoist. Rear space is only just about adequate, too. There’s really not very much legroom, far less than you get in alternatives, though the tall roof means headroom is great.

It’s cramped enough that the optional rear seat entertainment package is pretty much pointless - the screens mounted to the front seatbacks jut out so far they’re practically touching the rear passenger’s chests.

A third passenger will find themselves quite cramped in the rear of the G63, so it’s best suited to two. There are ISOFIX points on both outer rear seats, but fitting a bulky rear-facing seat will be a bit of a pain - and you’ll probably need to balance on the side steps to buckle your child in, too.

Boot space

With 640 litres of boot space on paper, the G63 fares well against alternatives. The Aston Martin DBX has 638 litres, the Lamborghini Urus 616, though the Land Rover Defender Octa and Range Rover Sport SV embarrass all of these with 972 and 738 litres respectively.

The G63’s boot is tall and narrow, rather than deep. This means there’s less floorspace available, so it’s better for carrying a few big bulky items rather than lots of little ones. If you have a massive weekly shop, it’s likely you’ll have to stack some bags on top of the others.

The side-opening tailgate is also a bit of a pain. It takes a huge amount of space behind the car to open it, and it’s very heavy - not helped by the spare wheel mounted on it.

Modern interior is a contrast to the retro-styled body, and it’s a nice place to sit - if it a bit awkward to use

Given the G63’s unashamed retro styling on the outside, you might expect a bit of a retro-pastiche interior too. But instead, it’s very modern and luxurious, using switchgear and tech from Mercedes’ passenger car range.

The highlight is the pair of widescreen 12.3-inch displays, set under one piece of glass so they look like a single seamless screen. The one behind the steering wheel displays driver information, while the central screen is for infotainment and is a touchscreen - though you can also use the central touchpad controller, which is quite good for fine control while you’re on the move.

The interface is a generation behind Merc’s latest passenger cars, and as a result some of the menus can be frustrating to navigate. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are provided if you want to bypass the system, though.

Mercedes has also resisted the temptation to take out all the physical switchgear, so you still get a full panel of climate controls as well as some shortcut keys in the centre. There’s also a really straightforward section for some of the off-road controls, to remind you of the car’s capabilities. The touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel are annoying to use, though.

Material quality is sumptuous, down to things like the veneered grab handle on the passenger side - while the solid metal air vents are a joy to operate. It certainly feels worth the price in here.

If your pockets are deep enough to buy a G63 in the first place it’s unlikely you’ll be too worried about the fuel bills - which is good, because they’re pretty ruinous. The G63 uses a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine with a monstrous 605hp. It’s even a mild hybrid, but don’t go expecting Toyota Prius-style fuel economy.

Even at its best Mercedes claims less than 20mpg from the G63, but if you’re stuck in traffic, or making the most of all that power on a twisty road, then you’ll see that figure tumble into single digits alarmingly rapidly. The G63 has a 100-litre fuel tank, and if you’re very careful you’ll be able to eke out about 400 miles from a fill.

CO2 figures of 338g/km mean that tax bills are correspondingly huge too, whether you’re dealing with the first-year VED of more than £5,000, or company car tax rates of 37% - the highest available.

The Mercedes G-Class range was tested by Euro NCAP in 2019 and scored five stars. Honestly, the G63 is so huge, heavy and powerful that we’d be more worried about the safety of whomever you hit - but despite its retro appearances, it does use modern underpinnings and has all the safety tech you’d expect, so don’t panic that it’ll fold up in a crash like an old bean can.

You get the usual assisted driving aids and active safety features you’d expect from any other luxury SUV, and Mercedes has been kind enough to make it really easy to turn off the speed limit warning bong - just hold down ‘mute’ on the steering wheel.

It may come from a lineage of military vehicles, but the Mercedes-AMG G63 doesn’t really have too much in common with its predecessors. It’s a niche and high-performance car, and so it’s likely to be a little more temperamental than your common or garden Mercedes SUV.

Mercedes also had a disappointing result in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, finishing 25th out of 32 manufacturers. If you want a trouble-free high-performance SUV, you should look at something like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid.