A visit to Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany

Visiting Germany was always going to result in a brush with a motoring giant. Today I took the time to travel to Neckerpark in Stuttgart, a place synonymous with Mercedes-Benz, literally - the train station is called Neckarpark (Mercedes-Benz).

Mercedes Benz Museum

Upon alighting from the train, I was confronted with a myriad of options - Mercedez Benz arena, Porsce arena or Merc museum. I headed straight for the Mercedez-Benz museum to familiarise myself with the history of the motoring brand. This was easy enough to find, as there are signposts from the train station right the way to the museum. 

Mercedez-Benz museum in Stuttgart Germany

Unfortunately, the museum is closed on Mondays, the very day I had chosen for my visit. The friendly lady who informed me of this gave my a brochure with some Mercedes facts and pointed me in the direction of the adjacent dealership. Here I would be able to view all the latest Mercedes-Benz cars for sale. 

Mercedes Benz fact timeline

1. In June 1967, Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher founded the company AMG.
2. The first major motor sports success - 1971: Hans Heyer and Clemens Schickentanz piloted the AMG 300 SEL 6.8 to a class victory at the 24 hour race in Spa
3. In 1986 the AMG 300 E 5.6 - affectionately known as "The Hammer" became the fastest production four-door saloon car in the world
4. In 1988 AMG and Mercedes-Benz join forces in the DTM racing series. Two years later, the collaboration would be extended to road vehicles.
5. In 1993 the first vehicles of the official co-operation, the Mercedes Benz C 36 AMG is introducted to the market and becomes a top seller.
6. AMG wins the 1997/98 FIA GT World Championship with the CLK-GTR. The team achieves even greater success in 1998 winning all the races in the series.
7. Success on the racetrack and in the showroom is undeniable. In 1999, Mercedes takes a controlling stake and AMG becomes Mercedes-AMG GmbH.
8. The first vehicle devised, designed and developed independently by AMG: the SLS AMG 'Gullwing' sees the light of day in 2009.
9. In 2011, the C 63 AMG Coupe Black Series - pushing road-legal performance to extremes with the latest in the line of super-exclusive Black series models.

Mercedes Benz showroom

With not much else to do, I headed down to the rather impressive Mercedes showroom. The showroom spans 3 floors and has just about everything one could possible need - plenty of the latest Mercedes cars to view, an exclusive coffee shop, a cinema, a kids playground... and did I mention the cars? Everything from the A-Class to the exclusive S-Class. Stationwagons and sports cars. This was certainly the most impressive car showroom I have ever entered.

 Mercedes Benz cars inside the showroom

 Here are some of the photos of the cars / stands within the Mercedes-Benz showroom in Stuttgart.