Concept cars are nothing new, as they provide as blank a canvas as any automotive designer can expect to work with. Next to no considerations for engineering in powertrains, no consumer surveys to consider, just the chance to draw, style, and create a car to be admired, inspired by and, potentially, produced, in some altered form perhaps, in the future. Mercedes Benz has a studio in Beijing, China. It’s hardly out of the ordinary given how massive the Chinese market is, and any manufacturer with business sense will realise how important China is to a company’s bottom line. What might surprise is just what the new Product Engineering Centre has come up with; the G-Code is a beautiful, sleek, yet very compact urban-oriented SUV aimed squarely at the big, congested cities of Asia. At some 161 inches long, it’s shorter than even a VW Golf, though its 74-inch width makes it