47 Fun Facts About Mercedes-Benz

The Mercedes name comes from the daughter of which Austrian businessman, who ordered the 1901 Mercedes 35 hp?

Emil Jellinek, an Austrian dealer based in Nice, entered his Daimler cars in races under his daughter's name, and 'Mercedes' was registered as a trademark in 1902.

The Smart city car began as a 1994 joint venture between Daimler-Benz and the maker of which watches?

Swatch: its chief Nicolas Hayek wanted a small, stylish city car made the way his watches were, and the name Smart is explained as Swatch, Mercedes and 'art'.

Which three-wheeled 1886 vehicle is widely regarded as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine?

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was Karl Benz's three-wheeler, financed in part by his wife Bertha's dowry.

After Daimler and Benz merged in 1926, the new badge set Daimler's three-pointed star inside which Benz emblem?

Laurel wreath: Benz & Cie. had ringed its name with one since 1909 as a nod to its racing wins, and the 1926 badge kept it around Daimler's star.

In which German city is Mercedes-Benz headquartered?

Stuttgart: Daimler's firm moved to the Untertürkheim district after fire destroyed its Cannstatt factory in 1903, and the group has its headquarters there today.

Which slogan, quoting Gottlieb Daimler, did Mercedes-Benz adopt in 2010?

The Best or Nothing renders 'Das Beste oder nichts', founder Gottlieb Daimler's motto; Mercedes revived it with a campaign retelling its history, to tie its cars to his pursuit of perfection.

What do the Mercedes-Benz star's three points stand for?

Land, water and air were where Daimler's engines were meant to run; his sons took the star from a postcard on which he had marked the family home, and the firm applied to protect it in 1909.

Bertha Benz's sons had to push the car up hills in 1888, so what did she suggest her husband add?

A lower gear: after her roughly 100 km drive to Pforzheim, made without her husband's knowledge, she reported that the car needed an extra gear for climbing.

Where did Bertha Benz buy fuel on her 1888 drive, effectively creating the world's first filling station?

A city pharmacy: petrol was not yet sold as motor fuel, so she bought the cleaning solvent ligroin at the Stadt-Apotheke in Wiesloch, celebrated since as the first filling station.

What did Bertha Benz use to clear a blocked fuel line during her 1888 drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim?

A hat pin cleared the line, and her garter served as insulation; a cobbler fitted leather to the failing brakes, inventing brake linings.

Which Daimler partner designed the first Mercedes and gave his name to a luxury marque?

Wilhelm Maybach designed the Mercedes 35 hp, then left Daimler's company and set up a firm with his son that powered Zeppelin airships before it turned to building Maybach cars.

The 300 SL sports car of 1954 is famous for what unusual feature?

Gullwing doors: the tubular space frame ran high along the sills, making conventional doors impossible, so the doors hinged at the roof and opened upward like wings.

The 300 SL, built with American buyers in mind, was unveiled at which motor show in February 1954?

New York: it debuted at the International Motor Sports Show there, not at Frankfurt or Geneva where Mercedes models usually appeared, because its US importer had pushed for the car.

The 1954 300 SL was an early petrol car with which engine technology?

Fuel injection: Bosch's mechanical system replaced the racing car's three carburettors and gave the road-going 300 SL more power than the racer it was derived from.

What record price did a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR coupé fetch in 2022?

€135 million: Mercedes had kept both 300 SLR coupés since 1955 and sold one through RM Sotheby's at its own museum in May 2022, the highest price then paid for any car.

Whose 1970 song 'Mercedes Benz' asks the Lord to buy her one?

Janis Joplin recorded it unaccompanied three days before she died, as a joke at the expense of people who chase status symbols, yet Mercedes-Benz later used the song in its own television adverts.

What was the first vehicle built at Mercedes-Benz's Alabama plant near Tuscaloosa in February 1997?

An ML320 SUV rolled off the line at Vance, near Tuscaloosa, in February 1997; pre-production M-Class cars had already been lent to the makers of The Lost World: Jurassic Park to advertise it.

The 'S' in S-Class stands for Sonderklasse, meaning what?

Special class: the label was used informally for the top Mercedes saloons for years before the W116 of 1972 became the first model officially sold as the S-Class.

Which safety device did the Mercedes-Benz S-Class first offer West German buyers as an option in 1981?

A driver's airbag: General Motors had sold airbags in the 1970s as a substitute for seat belts, but the 1981 S-Class paired the bag with belts that tightened in a crash.

Which safety system did Mercedes-Benz offer on the W116 S-Class in 1978, among the first cars to have it?

Anti-lock brakes: the electronic system developed with Bosch stopped the wheels locking, so a driver could still steer while braking hard.

Which royal figure suggested the vehicle that became the G-Class?

The Shah of Iran pressed Daimler-Benz for a rugged military off-roader in the early 1970s, but he was overthrown in 1979, the year the G-Class finally went on sale.

In which Austrian city did G-Class production begin in 1979?

Graz: Daimler-Benz and Austria's Steyr-Daimler-Puch developed the Geländewagen together and built it there largely by hand, and in some markets it was sold as the Puch G until 2000.

In 1980 Mercedes-Benz fitted a G-Wagen with a clear plastic dome over the rear seat to serve as what?

The Popemobile: the converted 230 G carried John Paul II on his visit to Germany in late 1980 and went on to accompany him on trips around the world.

What do the letters AMG stand for?

Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach: two former Mercedes engineers went independent in 1967 and added Aufrecht's birthplace to their initials; Mercedes' parent later bought the firm.

Mercedes-AMG has its headquarters in which small German town?

Affalterbach: AMG moved there in 1976, and each engine is assembled by a single builder who fixes a signed plate to it, the 'one man, one engine' rule.

What nickname did AMG's hefty 300 SEL racing saloon earn at the 1971 Spa 24 Hours?

The Red Sow (Rote Sau): the AMG-built 300 SEL, bored out to 6.8 litres, finished second overall and won its class at Spa in 1971, putting AMG on the map.

What name was given to the dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix cars of 1934-39?

Silver Arrows (Silberpfeile): legend says the paint was scraped off a Mercedes W25 before the 1934 Eifelrennen to save weight, exposing bare aluminium, and the name stuck to both teams' cars.

Under the national colour scheme of early motor racing, German Grand Prix cars were meant to be painted what?

White was Germany's racing colour, as red was Italy's and green Britain's; in Alfred Neubauer's much-doubted tale, his team sanded it off in 1934 to get under the 750 kg limit.

Which driver won the Formula One world title in both 1954 and 1955 after joining the Mercedes-Benz works team?

Juan Manuel Fangio won the W196's debut race in July 1954 and took both titles; Mercedes withdrew from racing at the end of 1955, the year of the Le Mans disaster.

Mercedes returned to F1 as a works team in 2010 by buying into which outfit?

Brawn GP, the 2009 double champion, was bought by Daimler and Aabar in November 2009 and became Mercedes GP, hiring Nico Rosberg and a returning Michael Schumacher.

Which team ended Mercedes' run of eight straight Formula One constructors' titles in 2022?

Red Bull took the 2022 title with Ferrari second, while Mercedes, whose eight in a row from 2014 to 2021 was a record, fell to third with a single race win.

The Mercedes Formula One team is based in which English town?

Brackley, Northamptonshire: the team races under a German licence but builds its cars a short drive from Silverstone, with engines from nearby Brixworth.

Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes for the 2013 season from which team?

McLaren had backed Hamilton since he was 13; he left to replace the retiring Michael Schumacher and went on to win six of his seven world titles with Mercedes.

The Unimog, short for Universal-Motor-Gerät, was designed in the 1940s for which use?

Farming: it was conceived as a machine that could work fields like a tractor and still drive on the road, with its track width set to match two rows of potatoes.

Which safety idea, devised by Mercedes engineer Béla Barényi, first reached production on the 1959 'Fintail' saloons?

Crumple zones: Barényi's design, protected in 1952, paired a rigid passenger cell with soft front and rear sections, overturning the belief that the stiffest car was the safest.

In 1998 Daimler-Benz merged with which American carmaker?

Chrysler: the 1998 'merger of equals' created DaimlerChrysler, but the marriage lasted less than a decade; in 2007 Daimler sold 80.1% of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management.

Daimler AG became Mercedes-Benz Group in 2022 after spinning off which business?

Its truck division: management argued that building luxury cars and heavy trucks had become very different businesses, and that two focused companies would each decide and adapt faster alone.

The founder of which Chinese carmaker became Daimler's largest shareholder in 2018 with a 9.69% stake?

Geely: founder Li Shufu disclosed the 9.69% stake in February 2018, and a year later the two firms agreed to build Smart cars together as a joint venture.

Who succeeded Dieter Zetsche in May 2019 as the first non-German to lead Daimler, now Mercedes-Benz Group?

Ola Källenius, a Swede who joined Daimler-Benz in a trainee group in 1993, took over on 22 May 2019 after heading research and development for Mercedes cars.

The 2009 S400 BlueHYBRID was the first production hybrid car in the world to use what?

A lithium-ion battery: the S 400 was a 'mild' hybrid, so its small electric motor only assisted the 3.5-litre V6 and never drove the car on its own.

Which American carmaker's dealers sold Mercedes-Benz cars across the United States from the late 1950s?

Studebaker: the struggling firm became Mercedes-Benz's American distributor under a 1957 deal, and as its own car business wound down many of its dealers turned into Mercedes dealerships.

Which Mercedes-Benz limousine, launched in 1963 and built until 1981, was known as the 'Grosser Mercedes'?

The 600 (W100), launched in 1963 and built until 1981, revived the 'Grosser Mercedes' title of the 1930s 770; its 6.3-litre V8 and hydraulic systems made it the choice of heads of state.

Gottlieb Daimler's wooden-framed Reitwagen of 1885 is widely regarded as the world's first what?

Motorcycle: Daimler built the Reitwagen ('riding car') only as a test bed for his new petrol engine, and it needed two small outrigger wheels to stay upright.

Which US importer suggested at a 1953 directors' meeting that Mercedes build a road-going sports car for America?

Max Hoffman backed his hunch with an order for 1,000 cars, and he also talked Porsche into the 356 Speedster and BMW into the 507.

Which Mercedes racing engineer used a 300 SLR coupé as his company car and is remembered in its nickname?

Rudolf Uhlenhaut: when Mercedes quit racing in 1955 the coupés were left unraced, so their designer drove one himself, a car able to approach 290 km/h.

The 1997 Mercedes-Benz A-Class tipped over in a Swedish swerve test named after which animal?

Moose: after the 'moose test' rollover, Mercedes stopped deliveries for three months, reworked the cars already built and fitted stability control as standard.

Which Mercedes-Benz model launched in 1982 was nicknamed the 'Baby Benz'?

The 190 (W201) was nicknamed the 'Baby Benz'; in 1984 a little-known Ayrton Senna won a race of identical 190s at the new Nürburgring against a field of Formula One champions.