| This light, utilitarian vehicle belongs to the family internationally known as Mercedes Benz G class or Gwagen.
G stands for Geländewagen (all terrain vehicle). Its design came forth at the beginning of the seventies as an express request from the Shah of Iran, Mohamad Reza Pahlayi, majority shareholder of Daimler-Benz at the time.
Designed to be an aero-transportable, durable, trustworthy, and a hard all terrain vehicle, the G-Wagen uses three self-locking differentials, same as the Wrangler jeep, the Land cruiser and the Unimog, among others.
The 230G model, in current use at the Argentine Army, has a naphtha engine of 2300 cm 3 and 102 hp, although in its 30 years of life there have been sold dozens of different versions. It has a maximum speed of 120 km/h, a range of 600km and can stand a maximum load of 515kg.
Developed in cooperation with the Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch, the production of the G class began in 1979.
In some markets, it was sold under the name of “Puch”. The French branch of Peugeot got the licence and manufactured it under the name of P4, with their own motor and other equipments.
The German Army drives it under the name “Wolf”, it has acquired 12.000 units, even though in the beginning they were partial to “litis” from their competitor Volkswagen.
Still in production, it's also available as 4x4 in the civilian market, especially in Europe and the United States of America in the SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) segment.
In Argentina, the MB230 are the sons of the “Plan Europe”, the acquisition and military industrialization project based on European suppliers, that was born from the absence of North American help imposed in the seventies.
Many hundreds were acquired at the beginning of 1980 and in later purchases, becoming the new standard nimble multipurpose army vehicle until now.
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