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.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG voted most attractive car

The readers of Germany's popular AUTO BILD magazine were asked to vote on what they thought was Germany's most attractive car, and in first place was the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

Mercedes-Benz develops new V6 and V8 engines

Mercedes-Benz have developed entirely new engines with world class fuel efficiency, these V-series engines plan to be the best in segment. Mercedes new V6 and V8 engines hope to lead the way in efficiency and advanced technology in an attempt to produce more power with reduced consumption.

The new V8 engine displaces 4663cc with an output of 320kW (435hp). This is around 12% more than the previous engine and yet still 0.8 litres less displacement. More impressive stats show that the torque has increased from 530Nm to 700Nm and yet the fuel consumption has dropped by 22%.

The V6 engine provides similarly impressive stats, within the S 350 the fuel consumption is an impressive 7.6 litres per 100km. This was achieved by the use of start/stop technology, which has become somewhat common place in most new cars that are being developed. Adding to this technology is third generation direct petrol injection with spray-guided combustion, multi-injection and multi-spark ignition.

Mercedes Benz direction when designing these engines was to increase the output and still reduce the fuel efficiency, instead of just producing newer power-house engines capable of massive output but at massive fuel consumption. This is a particular impressive feat for Mercedes and shows just how much life the combustion engine still has while still being economical and more friendly to the environment.

Source: Mercedes-Benz.

The new Mercedes-Benz R-Class; Spacious, prestigious and comfortable

The new Mercedes-Benz R-Class comes with a completely redesigned front as well as more space, and various styling elemtns taken from other Mercedes-Benz SUV's and saloons

The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet: Four seasons, four passengers

The highly appealing and emotionally charged Cabriolet is the latest addition

to the successful Mercedes-Benz E-Class line-up. The open-top two-door model, deliveries of which start from 27 March, features a classic fabric soft top, making for a stylistically pure cabriolet feeling. Viewed from the side, the new model is an intriguing proposition – with its clear proportions and a flawless cabriolet silhouette.

In keeping with the motto "four seasons, four passengers", all-year-round suitability was right at the top of the developers' list of priorities. With the new E-Class Cabriolet, the cabriolet season lasts the whole year because, while many cabriolets tend to disappear from the roads of Western Europe in the autumn, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet (length/breadth/height: 4698/1786/1402 mm) provides driving pleasure and comfort whether the roof is open or closed.



New features include:

AIRCAP® automatic draught-stop: always on board and easily controllable at the push of a button, it reduces turbulence substantially for all four seat occupants

Modified AIRSCARF® neck-level heating system

Acoustic soft top fitted as standard

The soft top can be opened and closed fully automatically within 20 seconds – even when driving at speeds of up to 40 km/h. The cabriolet roof is stowed in a special compartment behind the rear panel. A retractable cover separates the soft top compartment from the boot area; this cover must be closed in order to close the soft top. If the roof is to remain closed, the cover can be slid rearwards, in which case the boot capacity is increased by 90 litres to 390 litres. A through-loading feature is included as standard for the new Cabriolet, as is EASY-ENTRY – a manually operated entry and exit aid for the rear passengers.

Source: Mercedes Benz

Mercedes-Benz off to a successful start in the new year – sales grow by 24 percent in January

Stuttgart – In January, Mercedes-Benz continued the positive trend of the past few months by posting significant increases in its worldwide sales. A total of 67,000 passenger cars were delivered to customers, 24 percent more than in the previous year (2009: 53,900 vehicles).

Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars: "We started the new year successfully with a strong increase in sales. That was due to the large increases in many regions such as North America, Asia/Pacific, and the BRIC countries, as well as the continuing success of our new E- and S-Class. In the coming weeks we will be building on this excellent start. We expect to see significant growth in the first quarter."

Stuttgart – In January, Mercedes-Benz continued the positive trend of the past few months by posting significant increases in its worldwide sales. A total of 67,000 passenger cars were delivered to customers, 24 percent more than in the previous year (2009: 53,900 vehicles).

Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars: "We started the new year successfully with a strong increase in sales. That was due to the large increases in many regions such as North America, Asia/Pacific, and the BRIC countries, as well as the continuing success of our new E- and S-Class. In the coming weeks we will be building on this excellent start. We expect to see significant growth in the first quarter."

The new E-Class continued to do very well. The sedan doubled its worldwide deliveries to 13,900 units. The vehicle posted great gains in almost all markets, including the U.S., where sales more than doubled to 3,800 units, as well as in Germany (1,200 units/plus 66 percent) and China. In China, deliveries were four times higher than in the same month of last year, amounting to 2,300 units. The new-generation S-Class also recorded strong growth in January, with worldwide deliveries increasing by 50 percent to 4.300 units. A total of 1,300 S-Class vehicles were delivered to customers last month in China, representing a 46 percent increase over the same month of last year. Vehicle sales were also up sharply in the United States (plus 57 percent) and Germany (plus 75 percent) last month.

Source: Mercedes-Benz