The G is a great car that was built to last, to be capable, and to be rugged. But over the years MB found that they needed to make it comfortable in order to move units. That led to leather interiors, fancy infotainment systems, side steps, side pipes, and CHROME. Lots and lots of chrome. I am not sure which happened first. Did the chrome attract the rich and famous to buy the G? Or as the rich and famous bought the G and helped it reach iconic status did MB add more and more chrome? Either way, there is too much chrome.
Our G had the OEM front bumper bar, some chrome accents, side steps that are silver, and chrome side pipes. The first thing we did was remove the chrome front bumper. It is held on by only two bolts which tells me it is all about show and not function. Any minor bump and that bar would cave into the front end. Once you have it removed you just need to install some bumper caps where the bar use to mount. I found ours on eBay for less than $100.
Before
After
We might black out the chrome accents, but that is pretty low on the priority list. The side steps and side pipes are being addressed shortly, more on that in a future blog post. We did buy on eBay a black replacement to the side rubber strip that runs down the truck. The stock version is silver and changing that out to black should help quite down the look. But this first step of removing the bumper bar has already helped.