Mercedes G-Wagen vs MBOMBE 4: Big vs HUGE Off-Road Test! | 4K

Oh, my door's open! This is mental, Rory. I don't feel quite so brave anymore. So, you're looking for the best possible SUV. A car that is cool, capable, rugged, shies away from absolutely nothing. Well, trust me when I tell you there is nothing better, nothing bigger than this. All right, except maybe that. Oi, oi, is that, is that one of those, uh? Yes, yes, Mercedes G-Wagon. Oh, it's cute. Couldn't make it out from all the way up here. You know what this is, right? I know it's blocking out the sun. What is it? This is the Mbombe 4. Not an SUV, but an armoured personnel carrier built by South Africa-based defence solutions company Paramount Group. It's designed to be one of the most capable off-roaders on the planet, carrying troops to and from places that other vehicles just can't go. It makes cars like the G-Wagon look like toys. Are you, uh, overcompensating for something? What do you mean? What have you heard? But it's so big. Nobody needs something this big unless... Unless they want it to be ready for any situation. First thing I want to show you is it's got armoured wing mirrors. What car has armoured wing mirrors, for God's sake? And then the doors, listen to this, solid. You think your car's got a good door close sound? That is immense. It's got bulletproof glass, you can't wind it down. And then back here, I've got loads of storage on the side for my, uh, hunting rifles. Massive wheels, 20 inches, same size as yours, but the tyres are higher than the bonnet on your G-Wagon. And it's got water taps back here, so I can survive in the wilderness for months. It's got seats for up to eight people. Love this thing. How much is it? Top secret. What do you mean, top secret? They genuinely won't tell me. How much is that? That is £130,000 worth of G-Wagon, a luxury SUV that coincidentally was also originally developed as a military off-roader. Nearly half a million have been sold across its 44 years on sale, mainly because everyone from mums and dads on the school run, to celebrities, to the army, appreciates just how capable it really is. And you know the best part? You can actually buy these on AutoTrader, brand new, top spec, for like £130,000, used, £15,000. It's not bomb-proof though, is it? And on that bombshell, we thought we'd head away to test our SUVs in a variety of ways, to discover whether bigger really is better, and to find out if a highly engineered, purpose-built road car can hang with a monster like the Embemme Thor. First challenge, a bit of light off-roading through the wilds of South Africa to get some first impressions. The Mercedes 400D G-Wagon, the awesome 3.0-litre turbodiesel straight-six, and I am here for it. 326 horsepower, 0-62 in 6.4 seconds, with a top speed of 130 miles an hour. I love the fact that it's rugged outside with this incredible, luxurious interior. I'll give you that, Alex, but the Embembe takes rugged to a whole new level, literally. I feel so high up, it's like I'm sitting in a skyscraper. First impressions, quite comfortable actually. The seat's nice, the basic controls are very similar to what you get in a normal car. I've got an accelerator pedal, a brake pedal, and an automatic transmission. The engine is an 8.9-litre straight-six turbodiesel. It makes 450 horsepower and it'll do up to 140 kilometres an hour. And get this, this is the big one, it weighs 14.1 tonnes. Good job I've got armoured wing mirrors. And toughness is exactly what you need in the vast expanses of the South African savannah. Around us was one of the most ecologically rich and diverse habitats on the planet. 1.2 million square kilometres of flat plateaus, majestic mountain peaks, rolling grasslands and tree-dotted plains. Soon, Alex and I stumbled across the Paramount Canine Solutions anti-poaching academy. Preserving the beauty of these environments and ensuring the safety of the animals that live inside them is no easy feat. The academy, with its experienced rangers and highly trained dogs, make it their duty to protect the local wildlife. If there's a problem in the bush, they're on hand to take care of it. And that gave Alex an idea. Right, let's have a race. Absolutely. Tell me more. So, these guys need to get themselves and their trained attack dogs from point A to point B and they need a car that's fast that can do that for them, yeah? Or a helicopter. I've seen them jump out of helicopters before. Yeah, yeah. We don't have a helicopter. We have cars. So, whoever takes their car plus four passengers and an attack dog and does a lap the quickest is the winner and whoever doesn't is the loser and has to have a forfeit. Let's make it six passengers and an attack dog. But I can only take three passengers. There's loads of poachers out there. You bought the wrong car. All right, fine. My car is much quicker than yours anyway. I'll do two laps. You're doing two laps, I'm doing one. To be fair, my car takes ages to load, so by the time you do two laps and I do one, it might actually be closer than you think. Winner, loser, forfeit. Let's do it. Let's do it. So, the stage was set. Carry six passengers and at least one dog around the canine obstacle course, doing as many laps as required to complete the challenge. Winner wins, loser gets a forfeit. Ready? Yeah, ready. You guys ready? Three, two, one, go. I knew you were going to do that. Go, go, go, go, go. Yes, yes. Let me know when you're in. Buckles on. Open, open, open, open. Oh my god, this is slow. Come on, belt, belt, belt. Ready, steady, go, go, go, go, go. Come on, car. Dynamic. Okay. Come on, guys, go, go, go, go. Get your seatbelts on. Everyone in? Oh no. Oh god. Even in yet. All sport, oh god. This is good, this is good. Come on, car. While I was still getting my doors open, Alex was already off and running with her first three passengers and a dog. It wasn't looking good for the Mbombe, at least not yet. Come on, she's like nearly here already. Oh my god. Eventually, all six of my passengers were fully loaded and not a moment too soon because Alex was already back to pick up her second batch of passengers. And well done, go, go, go. But I was off with a fully loaded Mbombe ready to complete my one and only lap. Belts on, belts on. Ready? At this point, Rory was in the lead, but he was much slower both on the straights and in the corners and busy falling out of his car. We're okay, guys. Oh, my door's open. It's all gone wrong. Come on, car. Right. Okay, we have to beat him. Come on, we can do this, guys. We can do this. We are gaining on Rory here. I can't see anything at all. Come on. The Mbombe, though, was surprisingly nimble and had a ton of torque. We were holding on for the win. Nothing could stand in our way. Yes, I'm in the lead. I'm not letting her overtake. Oh, we're not going to win. Come on, car. Yeah. No, she's cheating. She's cheating. No. I am not having that. We won, right? We won. We might have cheated a little bit, but, you know, that's fine. I'll let you guys out. Sorry, doggy. Nailed it. You absolute cheater. Not really. You absolute cheater. Not really. What do you mean, not really? When does the track go? You were taking such a long time to go around there that I, you know. I cannot believe how much of a cheater you are. But I won, yeah? She didn't. Eventually, we both agreed that Alex's improvised driving wasn't in the spirit of competition and that it was, in fact, the Mbombe 4 that had won the race. Therefore, she deserved a forfeit. Option one was to help the dogs with their training by being bitten by Raptor, the biggest, meanest canine on the facility. But seeing as there wasn't a hospital anywhere nearby and Raptor could bite through armour, I suggested something a little bit less dangerous. Being run over by the Mbombe. You gonna do it? Yeah. You sure? Yes. You don't have to, by the way. No, no. You can be a loser if you want. No, no, I am not a loser. I've got this. Fair play. All right. Come on, then. Down there? Yes. I'll be in this. All right. Good luck. Yes, don't need it. Alex, are you ready? I am more than ready. Do you know what? I've also just noticed the Mbombe has a siren. So what will happen is, if anything goes wrong, I'm your ambulance as well. Oh, my God. I'm so glad you didn't find that earlier. Would you like me to lie down? Yes, please. I do feel the need now to say, though, do not try this at home. I am a professional driver. Alex is a professional stuntwoman. So I hear. Now that we're clear on that, let's go. I don't feel quite so brave anymore. Oh, my God. Is she still there? Fair play. I can't see her. Alex, one and Mbombe, zero. I'm actually shaking. You were shaking. Come on. It was fine until I felt all confident. And then it just started coming up over here. And I was like, oh, this is not normal. That's so wrong. That was amazing. Alex had somewhat redeemed herself with extreme bravery, but I wasn't letting her off the hook completely just yet. I had an idea for another little mission, but I thought the G-Wagon wouldn't stand a chance of winning in a place that neither car is very familiar with. But first, we have to get there. And that meant putting some miles down on the open road towards Johannesburg. I still haven't recovered. Next time, I'm definitely going for dog bite. There you go. You see, cheaters never prosper. Do you know, I honestly cannot get over how massive your car is. It's enormous, isn't it? I feel like I'm like sitting in a building on the third floor. Don't you think there comes a point where a car is just too big? All right, but maybe in the UK, it might be too big. But can you imagine doing the school run in this? It would be epic. Yeah, you definitely have the biggest SUV in the car park. What's it like to drive? It's actually all right. All the controls are kind of like a normal car. But on my dashboard, I've got a million switches. So activating simple things like the aircon, and I'm glad there is aircon because it's hot in here. It just feels really cool. It feels like way better than touching a touchscreen, for example. It's got power steering, so it's kind of easy to drive. It's quite noisy, as you can probably hear. Seats are comfortable. Yeah, I've got a cup holder as well. It's all right. A cup holder? I mean, all in all, you'd rather be in the G-Wagon, right? Yes, a little bit, especially on the motorways. I knew it. So do you know much about Johannesburg? No, not at all. Yeah, me neither. But I've been googling and I've got some quick facts to share with you. Apparently, it's called the City of Gold because of the gold rush here in the 1800s. It's also the cradle of mankind because they've got the highest number of fossilized ancient human remains on the planet. And it takes a minute longer to boil an egg here because the air is thinner because of the altitude. 2,000 meters above sea level. Plus, Elon Musk was born here as well. I haven't seen a single Tesla, though. Have you? Not really. But do you know how we give away an electric car every month on AutoTrader? And there are 65 million people in the UK. By the year, they're on to everyone in the country. And now we can start giving away some to people in Johannesburg. Yeah, true. I mean, we'd be long gone by then, but I have a feeling the Mbombe would still be kicking around. Despite Rory's slightly dubious maths, one thing that wasn't up for debate was the amount of fuel we were churning through. The Mbombe 4 was using quite a lot of it, averaging 6.3 miles per gallon, which is a third worse than what the G could manage. Yep. But thankfully, my 260-liter fuel tank gave it a range of 434 miles, which is good, especially as our next stop was only a couple of hundred miles away. But rather than taking the main road, I decided we should go via a shortcut. Very quickly, though, I began to regret the idea. Oh, my God, there is not a chance you are making it up that. Straight down and straight back up. Oh, Lord, that feels so wrong. This is mental, Rory. All I can see is sky. Look at that. Oh, my God. Not a chance you're getting up that. Come on, G-Wagon. We're going to have a broken G-Wagon any second, I promise you. Uh-oh. Get out of my way. No way. I did that much better than you. Fair play. Fortunately, the terrain soon leveled out, and we found ourselves on what looked like a rally stage. Oh, yes. Time for a bit of off-road action. Oh, my God. That is a big... Whoa! Keep your foot pinned, son. Is Alex keeping up? All I see is a cloud of dust. Man, I can't see anything. Oh, it's a big one. Oh, my God. It's drifting. It's a 14-ton rally car. Sorry, car. Oh, this is absolutely hilarious. This is way better than the motorway. Come on! With both the Imbombe 4 and the plucky G-Wagon having made it through our little off-roading activity, we were just on the outskirts of our final stop. This is Lanceria International Airport, located in the northwest of Johannesburg, and is famous as the airport where Nelson Mandela was flown when he was released from prison in 1990. And it's here the Imbombe and the G-Wagon would face their toughest test, a towing challenge. Yeah? Okay. Yeah, yeah. All right, I see where this is going. Epic, right? Couldn't you have got a better plane? What are you talking about? This is a BAC 111, built in 1970. This plane is a survivor. Oh, no, Rory, look at it. That did not survive. Guess what? This plane was actually built, guess where? In Southampton. British engineering. This used to be a British Airways plane. It served as a Ryanair plane. Oh, well, that explains it. All right, it's had a few kind of harsh landings, but it's actually really important because they use it at Lanceria for training people. So all the ground staff, they get them in the tugs and practice how to move planes around. People practice emergency escape drills using that plane. It's important in terms of keeping me and you safe. Okay, all right. Question for you, though. Yeah? What's the maximum towing capacity of your G400D? Three and a half tons. Oh, dear. How heavy is it? 25 tons. You're going to have a problem here. Rory might have a point there, but I didn't come this far to chicken out now. So I connected the plane to the car and literally hoped for the best. Okay, low range, traction on. Oh, man. I'm not going to lie. I'm a little bit worried about this. Okay, we're in gear. Are we ready? It feels taut. Am I moving? Is it moving? Yes, it's moving. She's doing it. No. Oh, my God. I'm actually in a car pulling a massive plane. Yes, G-Wagon. The view in my mirror, I can feel how heavy it is as well. Absolute breeze. Steve, Rory, you doubted me. You doubted the G-Wagon. You were wrong. Now, I'm slightly concerned about the stopping situation. That's a big old plane. Gravity better be working on my side. Ease of the throttle. Plane is slowing. That's always a good sign. Stopped. Yay! Mate, that was incredible. I didn't doubt you for a second. You smashed it. What do you mean smashed it? It's already smashed, mate. Shut up. It's a good plane. Right, your turn. Disconnect me. Well, I was thinking actually, because obviously the Embombe is bigger and more powerful than this. Obviously, it can tow the plane. I've got another idea. Oh God, here we go again. Stay hooked up. Watch this. My idea was to tow the 27-tonne BAC-111 aircraft, but to use the two-tonne Mercedes as an extension of the tow rope. Plane and car dragged simultaneously. What could possibly go wrong? I've got to say, this is by far the dumbest thing I've ever done. Don't ever try this at home. I'm really not sure how I feel about being part of this Embombe plane sandwich. Here we go. Get the slack. We're moving. Is Alex moving? That is the question. Oh my God, it's actually happening. Oh yes, it's happening. It's working! I am in an Embombe 4 pulling a Mercedes G-Wagon, pulling a BAC-111 aircraft. I did not expect this to work. I'm going to put my foot down. Should I go faster? Slow down, Rory. This is so stupid, but so brilliant. We're towing a combined total of about 27 and a half tonnes, like it's nothing. Look at me, I'm doing it hands-free. God, that Embombe is an absolute weapon. The only problem is how do we stop? What do we do? How do I do? Do I brake? Does Alex brake? No one's going to brake in the plane. Either way, it's not going to be my problem, is it? I'm going to come to a stop. The G-Wagon will be like a little pillow to cushion me against the impact of the plane. We are good. Oh, my God. Absolutely nuts. We did it. I can't even. I've got to get out. Come on. That was amazing. I told you, this thing is unbelievable. Good job, Rade. Good job. It's all right, it's all right. You know how you were saying at the beginning, right, that the ultimate off-roader is the G-Wagon? Changed your mind now, right? No, no, no, no. I still love her. She's awesome. Right, which one are you going to go for? G-Wagon or Embombe? Yeah, G-Wagon still. Every day. Yeah? Yeah. You? Embombe. All day long. Right. Family car. Take it to the school run. It's got Isofix, yeah? It hasn't got Isofix. Slight flaw in my logic. Also, probably doesn't fit in many parking spaces in the UK. So, G-Wagon for the week, Embombe for the weekend. Right, all right. Yeah? Yeah. All right. Okay. Drag race? Yeah, why not? Game one. What an adventure. What a place. And in the case of the G-Wagon, what a car. We always knew it was capable, but it absolutely exceeded all expectations. As for the Embombe 4, what a machine. In theory, it looks like it can conquer everything. And in reality, it just goes above and beyond. Both cars can seemingly go anywhere and conquer everything that South Africa, such a remarkable place, has to offer.