Could This Be the Ultimate SUV?

It’s been widely reported that a number of exotic automakers - including Bentley and Maserati - will be releasing super-premium sport-utility vehicles in the coming years for whom high-end trucks like the BMW X5 and Cadillac Escalade are, well, too common. For its part, Mercedes-Benz is said to be ready to begin production on the most outrageous example of the genre ever built, the limited production G63 AMG 6X6. Based on its already oddball military-derived G-Class luxury SUV, the 6X6 adds an extra rear axle and grafts a pickup bed behind the passenger cabin to create what appears to be the illicit six-wheeled love child of a Hummer H1 and a Chevrolet Avalanche. It’s powered by a 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine and rides on a half dozen 37-inch drive wheels with low-range gearing that should give it Spiderman-like climbing abilities. The 6X6 is aimed at the brand’s richest - and perhaps most eccentric - customers with an unbelievable MSRP as high as $450,000 when it becomes available in extremely limited numbers by year’s end.