Mercedes gears up to say 'goodbye' to the G-Wagon

The official teaser image for the Mercedes-Maybach G65 4x4 Landaulet (Daimler AG)

To mark the 38th and final year of production of the current-generation G Class SUV, Mercedes is set to unveil a very special drop top edition at the Geneva Motor Show. However, while the company hoped to keep fans in suspense by issuing teaser images between now and March, images and videos of the new car are already surfacing online.

And the pictures show that the final G Class is going to be very special indeed. It is going to be called the Mercedes-Maybach G65 4x4 Landaulet and is expected to be capped at 99 examples, each of which will be overflowing with in-cabin creature comforts that everyone will be able to see, thanks to a folding fabric soft top. But only when the car's parked, of course, because it will also have supercar performance thanks to an AMG-built twin-turbocharged 6-liter V12 engine under the hood.

When the Geländewagen launched as a military off-road vehicle in 1979, no one could have foreseen that it was destined to become a luxury automotive icon. But over the past four decades, just like the original Range Rover, that is exactly what has happened to the once agricultural G-Wagon.

And while the Range Rover has been through three full redesigns since 1970, the G-Class is still essentially the same as it was when it launched.

Be that as it may, it is so loved that every time Mercedes tries to retire it, fans protest so much that it stays in production.

However, this time round the once venerable vehicle really is being retired and will be replaced with something very similar in terms of look and feel, but with sufficient room in the cabin and under the floor to give it the 21st century automotive innovations that it's been lacking.

And that's also why the new model is a tour de force of everything good about the existing G-Wagon. As well as a throbbing V12 under the hood, lashings of leather and wood in the cabin and a soft top, it's also getting flared carbon-fiber wheel arches and portal axles to ensure it stands out the most among other G-Class models on the road.

This innovative way of connecting the wheels to the car and to the engine via rods and gears allows Mercedes to significantly increase the vehicle's ground clearance without slapping on the sort of rubber usually found on a monster truck.

And with the axles sitting above the wheels, rather than in line with each wheel center, Mercedes can get just as creative with the suspension system allowing each wheel even more movement and travel so that there are fewer and fewer off-road situations where this car could come unstuck.