More than 1000 customers in Australia face a two-year wait for a Mercedes-AMG G63 – the ‘gangsta’s’ SUV – as it’s revealed it can take up to 11 days to complete each hand-built example.
Order books for the Mercedes-AMG G63 SUV remain closed indefinitely – in Australia and Europe – as the German auto giant struggles to keep up with demand.
More than 1000 customers in Australia face a two-year wait for a Mercedes-AMG G63 – the ‘gangsta’ SUV famous for its music video appearances and popularity with Hollywood celebrities – as company executives reveal it can take up to 11 days to complete each one of the hand-built vehicles.
Most passenger cars and SUVs take about 24 to 36 hours from the beginning to the end of the production line.
“At the moment customers can’t place an order, but if we did have the order books open it would be a two-year wait,” a spokesman for Mercedes-Benz Australia told Drive.
When asked how long it would be before orders for the Mercedes-AMG G63 resumed, the spokesman said: “It’s not opening in the foreseeable future, but we always encourage customers to talk to their dealer in case the situation changes for other customers who are already in the queue and a car suddenly becomes available.”
Senior AMG engineering executive Steffen Jastrow told Drive: “It’s not easy to ramp-up production. We produce it in Austria with our partner Magna-Steyr so we are limited in how many we can produce.”
With that in mind, would Mercedes-Benz consider manufacturing the G-Class (or G-Wagen) in-house?
“There are no plans for that. We are committed to the current process and getting customers into their cars as soon as possible. But the manufacturing process for this vehicle takes time.”
Read more about Joshua Dowling
