Manufacturers  /  Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz

Stuttgart, Germany · est. 1926

Mercedes-Benz turns engineering programmes into road cars and collector hierarchies.

Models
9
Top value
€135M
Period
1926–
Explore modelsManufacturer profile
Mercedes-Benz — manufacturer stage

Curated entry points

The essential Mercedes-Benzs

Three cars that explain the manufacturer: its origins, its engineering peak and the shape of its modern ambition.

1954–1957

300 SL Coupé "Gullwing"

The gullwinged post-war design icon — 1,400 built, deeply liquid market.

Collectibility
97 / 100
Indicative value
€1.6M
1955

300 SLR "Uhlenhaut Coupé"

Two built; one sold for €135M in 2022 — the most expensive car ever.

Collectibility
100 / 100
Indicative value
€135M
2022–2024

AMG ONE

A genuine F1 hybrid powertrain for the road — 275 built, landmark engineering.

Collectibility
92 / 100
Indicative value
€3M

Complete catalogue

Every Mercedes-Benz on file

9 models · 4 families

SL & Silver Arrows

4

The 1950s apex — the road-going 300 SL in both bodies, the 190 SL that carried the SL face to ten times the volume, and the racing SLR that Rudolf Uhlenhaut turned into the fastest company car of all time. The most traded blue-chip family in the classic market.

Prewar Kompressor

1

Sindelfingen Sonderwagenbau bodies on the blown straight-eight chassis — 342 cars in three years, each one an order, the Spezial-Roadster the most expensive of all.

GT1 & AMG Halo

3

The modern collectibles — a road-legal GT1 racer built in a couple of dozen examples, the McLaren-era SLR speedsters and the sharpest of the gullwinged SLS line.

Hypercar

1

The AMG ONE took six years to tame a genuine Mercedes-AMG F1 power unit for the road — nothing else on the market carries this technology.

The house

Mercedes-Benz turns engineering programmes into road cars and collector hierarchies.

Karl Benz patented the automobile in 1886; the company that carries his name has been setting the industry’s engineering benchmark ever since. When Mercedes goes racing, it strips the paint — the bare-metal Silver Arrows of the 1930s gave the marque its colour and its aura.

The 300 SL of 1954 turned a Le Mans-winning racer into the world’s fastest road car, with fuel injection and gullwing doors nothing else could match. Today the Gullwing and its Roadster sibling are the most liquid blue-chip classics in existence — hundreds of clean trades to price against.

At the very top sits the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé: two built, one sold in 2022 for €135 million — the most expensive car transaction in history. The modern era answers with the CLK GTR, the SLR McLaren and the AMG ONE, a Formula 1 power unit with number plates.

Founded
1926
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie. merged to form Daimler-Benz, joining the two pioneer lines.
300 SL production
3,258 cars
Mercedes-Benz built 1,400 Gullwing coupés from 1954 to 1957 and 1,858 Roadsters through 1963.
Series-production first
Four-stroke direct injection
The 1954 300 SL introduced petrol direct injection for a four-stroke engine in a production car.
Auction record
€135 million
One of two 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupés sold at the Mercedes-Benz Museum on 5 May 2022.

Selected milestones

A bloodline, not a list.

  1. 1926

    The two companies merge

    Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie. combine as Daimler-Benz and adopt the Mercedes-Benz marque.

  2. 1952

    Competition returns

    The W194 300 SL returns Mercedes-Benz to racing with the light tubular spaceframe that becomes the basis of the road car.

  3. 1954

    The racer becomes a series car

    The 300 SL reaches production with direct injection and a spaceframe whose high sills dictate the roof-hinged doors.

  4. 1959

    Safety becomes structural

    The W111 introduces front and rear crumple zones around a rigid passenger cell in series production.

  5. 1997

    GT1 creates a road car

    AMG develops the CLK GTR for the new FIA GT series in 128 days; the road version follows the homologation requirement.

  6. 2022

    A Formula 1 power unit reaches the road

    AMG ONE production begins with a 1.6-litre hybrid power unit derived from the contemporary Formula 1 programme.

  7. 2022

    The Uhlenhaut Coupe resets the market

    Mercedes-Benz sells one of its two 300 SLR coupés for €135 million, setting the public auction record.

What defines Mercedes-Benz

Let engineering dictate form

The 300 SL's tubular frame created its high sills and roof-hinged doors; the shape records the structure beneath it.

Move competition work to the road

The W194 led to the 300 SL, GT1 rules produced the CLK GTR road car, and the AMG ONE adapted a Formula 1 hybrid power unit.

Develop safety as a system

Mercedes-Benz combines structures, restraints, braking and chassis control rather than treating safety as one component.

The hands

Who drew and built the Mercedes-Benz files

One name in the register stands behind this manufacturer. Their own file follows the work wherever it went.

The whole register of people

The mark

A star from a postcard.

Stuttgart, 1909: Daimler’s company needs a trademark, and Gottlieb Daimler’s sons remember a postcard. Years earlier their father had marked the family house on a picture of Deutz with a three-pointed star, writing to his wife that one day this star would shine over his own factory. Paul and Adolf Daimler filed it on 24 June 1909.

Three points for land, water and air — Daimler engines already powered cars, boats and airships. The 1926 merger with Benz wrapped the rival’s laurel wreath around the star; by 1933 the wreath had thinned to a plain ring, and the mark has barely moved since.

After Gottlieb Daimler’s postcard star · registered by Paul and Adolf Daimler, 1909

Mercedes-Benz crest, 1902–1909

1902–1909

The name before the star — Mercedes, after Emil Jellinek’s daughter, registered in 1902.

Mercedes-Benz crest, 1909–1926

1909–1926

The other half of the story: Benz’s laurel wreath, registered the same year as the star.

Mercedes-Benz crest, 1916–1926

1916–1926

The star gains its ring — four small stars and the Mercedes name set around it.

Mercedes-Benz crest, 1933–1989

1933–1989

After the merger badge, the reduction: a line-drawn star in a plain ring.

Mercedes-Benz crest, 1989–2009

1989–2009

The star in silver relief, the compound name set beneath.

Mercedes-Benz crest, 2009–

2009–

Larger name, quieter shine — the current lockup.