Mercedes-Benz Trivia
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47 free Mercedes-Benz trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Mercedes-Benz can claim the first automobile, the first long-distance road trip, the first production airbag and the most expensive car ever sold, so there is no shortage of material. This quiz covers the whole story: Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, Emil Jellinek's daughter Mercédès, the meaning of the three-pointed star, the Silver Arrows and Fangio, the Gullwing, the S-Class safety firsts, the Shah of Iran's G-Wagen, AMG's hand-built engines and the modern Formula One dynasty. The opening questions are easy for anyone who follows cars; the later ones dig into plant locations, production numbers, corporate name changes and the odd nickname of an AMG racing saloon. Every answer was verified against Wikipedia's articles on the company, its models and its people, so you can trust the dates and figures. Ideal for petrolheads, quiz nights and anyone who has ever wondered why the star has three points.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Mercedes name comes from the daughter of which Austrian businessman, who ordered the 1901 Mercedes 35 hp?
Emil Jellinek
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.
Q 02The Smart city car began as a 1994 joint venture between Daimler-Benz and the maker of which watches?
Swatch
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'.
Q 03Which three-wheeled 1886 vehicle is widely regarded as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine?
Benz Patent-Motorwagen
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was Karl Benz's three-wheeler, financed in part by his wife Bertha's dowry.
Q 04After Daimler and Benz merged in 1926, the new badge set Daimler's three-pointed star inside which Benz emblem?
Laurel wreath
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.
Q 05In which German city is Mercedes-Benz headquartered?
Stuttgart
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.
Q 06Which slogan, quoting Gottlieb Daimler, did Mercedes-Benz adopt in 2010?
The Best or Nothing
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.
Q 07What do the Mercedes-Benz star's three points stand for?
Land, water and air
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.
Q 08Bertha Benz's sons had to push the car up hills in 1888, so what did she suggest her husband add?
A lower gear
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.
Q 09Where did Bertha Benz buy fuel on her 1888 drive, effectively creating the world's first filling station?
A city pharmacy
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.
Q 10What did Bertha Benz use to clear a blocked fuel line during her 1888 drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim?
A hat pin
A hat pin cleared the line, and her garter served as insulation; a cobbler fitted leather to the failing brakes, inventing brake linings.
Q 11Which Daimler partner designed the first Mercedes and gave his name to a luxury marque?
Wilhelm Maybach
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.
Q 12The 300 SL sports car of 1954 is famous for what unusual feature?
Gullwing doors
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.
Q 13The 300 SL, built with American buyers in mind, was unveiled at which motor show in February 1954?
New York
Q 21Which royal figure suggested the vehicle that became the G-Class?
The Shah of Iran
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.
Q 22In which Austrian city did G-Class production begin in 1979?
Graz
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.
Q 23In 1980 Mercedes-Benz fitted a G-Wagen with a clear plastic dome over the rear seat to serve as what?
The Popemobile
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.
Q 14The 1954 300 SL was an early petrol car with which engine technology?
Fuel injection
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.
Q 15What record price did a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR coupé fetch in 2022?
€135 million
€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.
Q 16Whose 1970 song 'Mercedes Benz' asks the Lord to buy her one?
Janis Joplin
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.
Q 17What was the first vehicle built at Mercedes-Benz's Alabama plant near Tuscaloosa in February 1997?
An ML320 SUV
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.
Q 18The 'S' in S-Class stands for Sonderklasse, meaning what?
Special class
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.
Q 19Which safety device did the Mercedes-Benz S-Class first offer West German buyers as an option in 1981?
A driver's airbag
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.
Q 20Which safety system did Mercedes-Benz offer on the W116 S-Class in 1978, among the first cars to have it?
Anti-lock brakes
Anti-lock brakes: the electronic system developed with Bosch stopped the wheels locking, so a driver could still steer while braking hard.
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.
Q 24What do the letters AMG stand for?
Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach
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.
Q 25Mercedes-AMG has its headquarters in which small German town?
Affalterbach
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.
Q 26What nickname did AMG's hefty 300 SEL racing saloon earn at the 1971 Spa 24 Hours?
The Red Sow
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.
Q 27What name was given to the dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix cars of 1934-39?
Silver Arrows
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.
Q 28Under the national colour scheme of early motor racing, German Grand Prix cars were meant to be painted what?
White
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.
Q 29Which driver won the Formula One world title in both 1954 and 1955 after joining the Mercedes-Benz works team?
Juan Manuel Fangio
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.
Q 30Mercedes returned to F1 as a works team in 2010 by buying into which outfit?
Brawn GP
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.