Mercedes-Benz G63, Tungsten Steel Silver

The G-Class has spent four decades refusing to evolve, and the W463A generation that arrived in 2018 made a virtue of it: same upright silhouette, same exposed door hinges and grab handle, same thunk of the door, but underneath a wholly modern platform. In G63 form that conservatism meets AMG's hand-built 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 (the "V8 BITURBO" script on the front wing says as much), making this the rare luxury SUV that climbs Alpine passes and crawls dunes with equal authority. Its character shows in the photos: the squared-off body and round headlamps untouched since 1979, set against the AMG twin-blade grille, the staggered multi-spoke wheels and red calipers, and the side-exit exhausts. It is the choice of the buyer who wants presence without pretending the thing is anything other than a box on a ladder frame.

The model holds the W463A's hard edges cleanly (the flush glazing, the upright A-pillars, the spare-wheel cover detailed with the three-pointed star), and the Tungsten Steel Silver reads as a cool, lightly metallic grey that shifts under light. A quietly imposing piece. It is built at 1:18 and sits on a carbon-finish base.