22. Mercedes G-Class
Today, the G-Class is the irreplaceable garage decor of modern gangsters, celebrity musicians, athletes, and actors. But 40 years ago, Mercedes designed and built this to be the transport of Iranian Special Forces. The story goes like this: sometime in the mid-70s, Iranian leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a renowned Mercedes fan and customer. Pahlavi asked the company to make a special, all-wheel-drive, off-road, light military vehicle for his elite forces. Since the Shah was a high-profile client, Mercedes obliged and in 1979 presented the G-Class.
However, there was a huge problem. Just a few months before the official release of the G-Class, the Iranian revolution started and radical Islamists overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi. That meant the deal with Mercedes was off, so the company was left with a fully-developed car without a customer.
So Mercedes decided to offer the G-Wagen to other armies as well as transform it into a passenger vehicle. Unfortunately, the G-Class lost its off-road capabilities, and become nothing more than a status symbol for millennial criminals and their families.