When we hear the words Mercedes-Benz and bulletproof-reliability in the same sentence, two cars come in mind: the W124 E-Class and the classic G-Class.

What 77-year-old Gunther Holtorf and his now-deceased wife Christine achieved over the past 26 years, prove that point for the latter.

The German couple put around 850,000 kilometers (528,000 miles) on the odometer of their Mercedes-Benz 300GD after purchasing the diesel-powered G-Class brand new in 1988. That’s the distance from the earth to the moon and back, plus another 80,000 kilometers (~50,000 miles).

While many cars have surpassed this mark, not all miles are made equal, because Holtorf set out to travel around the world having visited 215 (!) countries over the past 26 years, purportedly covering more than 250,000 (~155,000 miles) of the 850,000 km off-road, most of the times with 500 kg (1,102 lbs) in excess of the permissible gross vehicle weight due to the gear he was carrying.

According to Mercedes, the off-road part “for the suspension and chassis is equivalent to around 2.5 million kilometers [1.55 million miles] under normal central European conditions”.

“In 1988, when I bought the car I was a bit more skeptical about the promise made by Mercedes-Benz, namely ‘Where there’s a G, there’s a way’. After all, I’d already seen something of the world beforehand and had a rough idea of what the vehicle would have to endure on this kind of world tour!” said Holtorf, who nicknamed his G Wagen ‘Otto’.

However, the G-Class proved reliable as according to Holtorf, the entire drivetrain with the engine, transmission and axles is still original, with neither the frame nor the body showing any signs of fatigue.

The 77-year old owner of the car who earned a place in the Guinness Books of records handed the 4×4 to Mercedes-Benz which will put it on display at its museum in the Classic Cars section from October 21.

During the delivery ceremony that coincided with the G-Class’ 35th anniversary, Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche confirmed that the brand will keep the G-Class alive, as recently reported.

“I promise that there will still be a G-Class in the future. Will there be more characters of Mr Holtorf’s ilk in the future? I hope so,” said Zetsche.

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