The Mercedes G550 Anti-Tesla

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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The Mercedes G550 Anti-Tesla

© courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) brings out more versions of its cars and demonstrates that it can built fast cars that get 100 miles per gallon, at least the way the government measures. It is an odd methodology since the Tesla is all electric.

That measure aside, Mercedes has a vehicle that shows just how little gas prices matter in certain quarters. The Mercedes-Benz G550 guzzles gas, according to a recent 24/7 Wall St. analysis:

Mercedes-Benz, G550
> Miles per gallon: 13.4
> MSRP: $120,825

Mercedes-Benz has been building the G550 for 36 years, and chances are the vehicle will celebrate its 40th year anniversary before the automaker decides to move on. For 2016, the SUV got a peppier and more fuel efficient engine. Despite the improvement, it is among the least fuel efficient vehicles on the market, getting an average 13.4 mpg. The G550 weighs 5,724 pounds, and the 4-liter, 416-horsepower engine can push that weight from 0 to 62 mph in 5.9 seconds.

The price of the G550 is about the same as the high-end Tesla.

[nativounit]

Mercedes does not end its assault on Tesla with one model. Its AMG S65 gets 13 mpg in the city. For $227,000, a buyer can get a six-liter, bi-turbo engine that drives 621 horsepower. The car, however, is much slower than the high-end Tesla with its 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds.

Tesla just announced:

The Model S P100D with Ludicrous mode is the third fastest accelerating production car ever produced, with a 0-60 mph time of 2.5 seconds. However, both the LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder were limited run, million dollar vehicles and cannot be bought new. While those cars are small two seaters with very little luggage space, the pure electric, all-wheel drive Model S P100D has four doors, seats up to 5 adults plus 2 children and has exceptional cargo capacity.

The AMG S65 is a dog. It does though eat gas so quickly that it can barely make it from gas station to gas station.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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