The Mercedes G-Wagen is one of the more coveted cars in the world, not for its inaccessibility, but perhaps the opposite: It’s an attainable if expensive status symbol, which also means there is no end to shops remixing the car to make their own enviable SUVs. One of the latest is the Carlex Design Himalaya Diamond, a $1.7 million twist on the G-Wagen that offers, you guessed it, diamonds included.
The Poland-based shop has been making modified versions of the G-Wagen for a while now, but the Himalaya Diamond is one of its most outlandish. It’s also one-of-a-kind, with a single example produced at a price well over seven figures. Two other cars in the series were made as well, all of them slightly different but sharing some common characteristics, like the paint, which has diamonds, or at least diamond dust.
“The bodies of these three vehicles are coated with hand-applied paint in a palette of pastel white and subtle, deep gold, enriched with genuine diamond dust,” Carlex Designs, which first showed the car previously, says in a statement. “Our diamond-dust paint is nothing like traditional metallic finishes, which reflect light in a flat, uniform way. Instead, it’s as if countless miniature 3-D facets are scattered throughout the lacquer, catching light differently from every angle—like dispersed sparks in fine jewelry.”
The headlights and grille on the Carlex Design Himalaya Diamond.
Carlex
The car underneath is a Mercedes-AMG G63, which is powered by a 577-horsepower twin-turbo V-8 engine, mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission.
The paint is not the only thing that Carlex says is special. The leather, called “Himalaya hide,” t is priced by the centimeter and represents the peak of leatherworking, according to the brand. In the car, it is a shade of white, and complements the exterior nicely, while adding a reptilian flair.
Whether that is your taste is the $1.7 million question, though Carlex is the kind of shop that is small enough in the world of G-Wagen modifiers that they will likely make you your own custom car, too, for a price. That may be worth it, in a world where your G-Wagen is one of just many on the road, just another $200,000 SUV that is struggling to stand out. In that case, Carlex is here to help—with diamond dust.
Click here for more photos of the Carlex Design Himalaya Diamond.
Authors
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Erik Shilling
Erik Shilling is digital auto editor at Robb Report. Before joining the magazine, he was an editor at Jalopnik, Atlas Obscura, and the New York Post, and a staff writer at several newspapers before…