Built by Hand in Graz
Every G-Class has been built at Graz-Thondorf in Austria, by Steyr-Daimler-Puch and its successor Magna Steyr, and it is still largely assembled and welded by hand. The Schöckl, the mountain above the plant, gives the factory its own test track and the model its durability benchmark.
Part of G-Class
20 moments in this segment.
- — Period promotional films on building the first W463 G-Class. Two promotional films run back to back: the first walks through how the G is manufactured, the second through the range of uses the vehicle was sold for. Forty minutes of period corporate footage of the first W463 generation, not a modern retrospective.
- — A G-Class body on the Graz assembly line. A G-Class under construction on the Magna Steyr line in Graz in 2009. The G is still built with an unusually high proportion of hand work: bodies are hand-welded and painted, and each car is largely assembled by a small team rather than a fully automated line. This is one of very few freely licensed photographs from inside the factory.
- — Hand-built: the G-Class production line at Graz. Another view of the Magna Steyr G-Class line in Graz, 2009. The ladder-frame chassis and separate body construction had by then been essentially unchanged for thirty years. Production volumes were small enough that the line ran at a walking pace.
- — Mercedes 300 GE on the Schoeckl at the 30-years G-Class owners' meeting. Trackside and onboard footage of a 300 GE working over the Schoeckl off-road course above Graz during the international G-Class owners' meeting of 18-21 June 2009. The Schoeckl is the mountain used as the model's original proving ground, so an owners' run over it is as much a pilgrimage as a drive.
- — The Graz-Thondorf plant where every G-Wagen is built. The Steyr-Daimler-Puch works at Graz-Thondorf in southern Austria, extended between 1975 and 1978 specifically to build the Geländewagen. Every single G-Class since 1979 has been assembled here rather than in Stuttgart, first by Steyr-Daimler-Puch and since 2001 by its successor Magna Steyr. The plant is the physical reason the car was sold as a 'Puch G' in Austria. The vehicle or site is period; this photograph was taken in 2010.
- — The Iron Schoeckl: a G-Class on a 100 percent gradient. A G-Class climbs and descends the Iron Schoeckl, a steel ramp rig that reproduces the 100 percent gradient of the Schoeckl test mountain. It is how Mercedes-Benz demonstrates the model's climbing angle to people who will never take one up the real mountain.
- — G for Graz: the 20,000th G-Class of the year at Magna Steyr. A short film marking a record year at the Magna Steyr plant in Graz, where the 20,000th G-Class of 2016 was built. Mercedes-Benz notes the model has been produced there on its behalf since 1979 and that more than a quarter of a million have been made.
- — A G-Class test driver on the Schoeckl. Test driver Erwin 'Air' Wonisch, involved in G-Class development since 1976, guides a 44-minute run around the Schoeckl near Graz, the model's original testing ground. It is the closest thing in this set to a first-hand account of how the vehicle is proved, told from the driver's seat.
- — Mercedes driving events and the Iron Schoeckl rig. A ten-minute look at the Mercedes-Benz driving events where customers get to use the G-Class properly, including the Iron Schoeckl rig that reproduces a 100 percent climb. The channel notes that few owners ever push the model to the limits its engineers design for.
- — Making of the 2018 G-Class in Graz. Production and development footage for the 2018 G-Class from the plant in Graz, released as part of the manufacturer's launch campaign. Mercedes-Benz states that more than 300,000 G-Class vehicles had been delivered since production started in 1979 and that each one can be specified to the customer's requirements.
- — Magna Steyr Graz, 2018. The Magna Steyr complex in Graz in 2018, the year the fully redesigned W464 G-Class entered production here. Magna Steyr is a contract manufacturer that also builds cars for BMW, Jaguar and Toyota, but the G-Class is the line it has run longest. The G-Class assembly hall is the direct descendant of the 'Gelände-Fahrzeug GmbH' joint venture set up in the late 1970s.
- — Two presenters take the G-Class up the Schöckl. Mercedes-Benz's own twenty-minute film on the Schöckl, the mountain outside Graz where every G-Class has to prove itself before it is signed off. Several variants appear, including the G 500 and the AMG G 63.
- — SUV Superbuild documentary on the G-Wagen, third part. A television documentary segment on the G-Wagen, framed around a vehicle originally conceived for military and municipal duty that became one of the longest-running designs Mercedes-Benz has ever produced. Part three of the series.
- — The G-Class Experience Center and factory collection in Graz. Mercedes-Benz's own film following a presenter through the Experience Center in Graz, up the G Rock and around the off-road and water stations. It also shows the factory collection programme for customers taking delivery of a new G-Class, with the head of G-Class sales and product management, the delivery project lead and an instructor on camera.
- — Inside the G-Class production line at Magna Steyr. A chaptered walk through G-Class manufacturing at Magna Steyr in Graz: welding shop, paint shop, body assembly and the leather shop. A large part of the G-Class body is still welded by hand, which is the reason the car has stayed a low-volume, hand-built product for its whole life.
- — G-Class assembly line at Magna Steyr in Graz. Twenty minutes of production-line footage from the Austrian plant where every G-Class is built. The G-Class is manufactured by Magna Steyr, formerly Steyr-Daimler-Puch, and the line relies far more on hand welding and hand assembly than a normal car plant. In some markets the vehicle was sold under the Puch name rather than as a Mercedes.
- — Two minutes descending the Schoeckl in a G-Class. Raw in-car footage of a G-Class driving back down the Schöckl, the steep mountain above Graz that Mercedes uses to sign off the model. No commentary, just the descent.
- — The G-Class Experience Center in Graz. An official Mercedes-Benz clip on the G-Class Experience Center in Graz, Austria, where customers drive the vehicle on purpose-built obstacles near the plant that produces it. It is the public-facing side of the Schöckl testing tradition.
- — The off-road driving course at the Graz Experience Center. A 4K run through the off-road course at the G-Class Experience Center beside the Graz plant, including the obstacles customers drive on the Schöckl programme. The description notes the centre has run for five years and hosted around 3,000 customers in the previous year alone.
- — Plant footage of G-Class assembly in Graz. B-roll of G-Class assembly supplied by the Magna plant in Graz to a visiting journalist, who notes that no personal recording equipment is allowed inside. It shows parts of the process that visitors are not normally able to film.
