Puch G History

In 1972 Daimler-Benz and Steyr-Daimler-Puch signed a joint agreement to develop a go-anywhere military and civilian utility vehicle. The Graz engineers drew on decades of Haflinger and Pinzgauer expertise to design the ladder-frame, four-wheel-drive body-on-frame platform; Mercedes-Benz engineers in Stuttgart handled styling and powertrain. Series production began at the Graz plant in 1979 under Mercedes model code W460.

Under a separate commercial agreement, vehicles sold in Austria, Switzerland, Yugoslavia (and its successor states), Mongolia, and COMECON Eastern Europe were badged and marketed as the Puch G rather than the Mercedes G-Wagen. The Puch G and Mercedes G-Wagen were mechanically identical, available with the same petrol (230G, 230GE) and diesel (240GD, 300GD) engines. Steyr-Daimler-Puch's role as the sole manufacturing site meant every G-Class, regardless of badge, left the Graz factory.

Puch's branded involvement in the G effectively ended with the Steyr-Daimler-Puch group's break-up from 1987 onward, though the Graz plant — eventually operated by Magna Steyr — has continued to manufacture every G-Class built to the present day. The Puch G represents the apex of Austrian automotive engineering: a vehicle whose bones were designed by the Haflinger team and whose Graz factory has outlasted every other element of the Puch story.