A new, more hardcore military-grade Gelandewagen has been revealed with Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) and in single-cab guise…

Never underestimate heritage and the appeal of styling and design.

Mercedes-Benz’s Geländewagen has proven, for decades, that you can make old-school work in evolving markets. It has never gone off-trend and now there is the potential for true contemporary retro gold, with a new version of the W464.

Gelandenwagen enthusiasts who pine for the classic 1980s grille and sand beige colourway might have hope forMercedes-Benzto providethese design details for private buyers – in time.

A deeply successful but undermarketed part of the Gelandenwagen business is its military and government agency customers. These fleet users are never in the market for a G63 or anything with enormous alloy wheels and elaborate leather cabin trim.

The first images of this new utilitarian W464 have leaked and it shows all those details that make Gelandenwagen followers giddy with excitement. The standard factory snorkel. Large volume tyres. Winch and bullbar mounting point on a steel front bumper.

Recognizing that military and government customers always require superior road surface illumination, especially when Gelandenwagens are used for search and rescue work, the most utilitarian W464 has upgraded to LED headlights with DRLs.

Something noteworthy for South African Gelandenwagen fans, is the presence of a chassis-cab version of the W464, which indicates that single-cab bakkie, could become available.

Mercedes-Benz exported a righthand drive version of the W461 in single-cab form to Australia for many years,making for one of the world’s most iconic 4×4 bakkies and there is no reason why the new W464 platform could not provide a similar bakkie variant.

Powering the more rugged W464 is a potent 2.9-litre in-line six turbodiesel, boosting 183kW and 600Nm.

Although comprehensive technical details have not been released, expect these government order W464sto be more capable off-road than any current G400d, with the possibility of some additional wheel travel and traction aid calibration.

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