About Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz can make a claim no rival can match: Karl Benz patented his three-wheeled Motorwagen in 1886, and the company that bears his name still treats that as a birthright. The Mercedes name came from the daughter of Emil Jellinek, a dealer who ordered a racing car from Daimler in 1900, and the two pioneering firms merged in 1926. A century of three-pointed stars later, the brand remains the reference point for luxury, safety and engineering that everyone else measures against.
Its history reads like a list of firsts and favorites: the gullwing 300 SL, the crumple zone, anti-lock brakes and airbags pioneered on the S-Class, the near-indestructible W123 and W124 sedans that became taxis on every continent, and the Silver Arrows that won in Grand Prix racing before the war and in Formula One in the modern era. The company has also had its stumbles, from the troubled DaimlerChrysler marriage to quality wobbles in the early 2000s, and critics regularly accuse it of cluttering cabins with screens.
Today the lineup runs from the CLA and GLA to the C-, E- and S-Class sedans, a ladder of GL SUVs, the G-Class, the Sprinter and other vans, with AMG for performance and Maybach for opulence. The early all-electric EQ cars struggled to win buyers, and the brand has pivoted to electric versions of familiar nameplates, starting with the new CLA and GLC, while keeping combustion engines, even V8s and V12s, in the plan. Its fiercest rivals remain BMW, Audi, Lexus and, increasingly, Chinese luxury brands.
Mercedes is also a bellwether for the German industry and for luxury car makers everywhere, so its fortunes are watched closely by investors as well as enthusiasts. Its quarterly results, its China sales, its tariff exposure and its battery and software bets make headlines well beyond the car pages. The coverage collected here follows all of it, from new model reveals, first drives and comparison tests to recalls, dealer news, executive interviews, motorsport and the classic-car auctions where old stars still fetch astonishing sums.