Whatever your thoughts on Mercedes-Benz, there’s no doubt that our roads would look somewhat different if the Daimler story had never been written.
Mercedes can justifiably claim to have invented the car, but if it didn’t, you could be certain that somebody would soon enough. Whatever, since 1886, an awful lot has happened, and it’s rather gratifying to know that the German brand with the three-pointed star has been keeping accurate notes.
And now, its entire historical archive can be accessed by the likes of us.
Follow this link to get into the Mercedes public archive. In here you’ll find links to pretty much Mercedes has ever put its name to, with more photos and videos than you can shake a forest’s worth of sticks at.
Despite an English viewing option, the archive is understandably pretty heavy in German content that has yet to be translated, but hey, why not have a go yourself and add to the richness of your experience.
There are some proper gems in here, including this vintage Unimog advert. Why not see what you can find?
250 Hooniversal Credits (redeemable in participating branches of K B Toys) for whoever finds the most astonishing relic and posts it in the comments section below.
(With thanks to Classic M@RS)
Mercedes blows the doors to the past wide open
By RoadworkUK
Jul 5, 2017
By RoadworkUK
RoadworkUK is the online persona of Gianni Hirsch, a tall, awkward gentleman with a home office full of gently decomposing paper and a garage full of worthless scrap metal. He lives in the village of Moistly, which is a safe distance from London and is surrounded by enough water and scenery to be interesting. In another life, he has designed, sold, worked on and written about cars in exchange for small quantities of money.
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski
It’s too bad that history doesn’t refer to this Avus winning streamlined SSKL as the Vienermobile. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc1f45ff6edb02ae6dc6697456e433ae145445ac5bacbfcf6185e9850762cd0f.jpg
I wonder why this didn’t become iconic?
I suppose it depends who you ask.
It’s lovely to see the evolution through to these.
https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/scr/cache/115730v1tv3/29952-Grosser-Preis-von-Tripolis-1938.jpg
“We heard you liked Unimogs, so we put a Unimog on your Unimog…”
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb2ed3bd30018bb0eea1a4059f5d631bc1cdd42e7e5df147a006901915d7d5ed.jpg
MB Trac!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f3c5f2888b86f979a4416a9819c90b556c788463702d578d3f7629caf7e174c.jpg
Speaking of doors to the past opening: Atomic Toasters has risen from the dead: atomictoasters.com Thanks to Fodder!
EXCELLENT!
The W124 gets three separate entries for the one model range, which shows that despite their similarity in appearance, there were big differences in the technology under the skin. Given the technology changes pioneered over that time in most cars but Mercedes Benz in particular, it’s a lesson that could have been learned from by their competitors who all completely changed their entire competing cars with all the extra reliability risk of all that ‘newness’ going wrong.
Fortunately thanks to the brilliance of the design, the W124 wasn’t dated when it went out of production in Indonesia in 2000.(And SsangYong repanelled it as the Chairman for another ‘few’ years through to 2014)
My ’86 300E is different in so many ways from my ’92 300E-24 and ’95 E320 and it’s more than the addition of accessories. https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/124-series-saloons-1984—1989.xhtml?oid=5258
https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/124-series-E-Class-Saloons-1993—1995.xhtml?oid=5152
https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/124-series-saloons-1989—1993.xhtml?oid=5278
https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/scr/cache/42533v2tv3/89F751-MB-Baureihe-124.jpg
Their branding is bugging the crap out of me. Classic M@RS? What is that? Classic Maters? Is this a dating site for people over 25?
“The archives of Mercedes-Benz Classic are a unique treasure-trove covering almost 130 years of automobile history. With Public-M@RS (Multimedia Archive and Research System), all interested parties are able to share in the knowledge and memories of the brand and its products.”
I think they were just desperate to use the @ symbol because, you know, modern
Mater Approved!
http://www.disney.co.uk/sites/default/files/Cars/GENERIC/Character%20Section/Biography%20Images/msf_cars_cmi_mater.jpg
i suppose the benz modern history will not tell the tale of the failed warranty programs(a pyramid scheme if ever you saw one) and the modern mercedes maintenance disasters cause, no doubt, by the sales department doing all the engineering for the automobile division.