Stuttgart - June 11'th - Visit to Mercedes Classic

What a wonderful day. Today was a study in the history of a brand .... the Mercedes-Benz brand. We visited four very significant sites which in essence define the brand. This part of my trip started months ago when Marcus Breitschwerdt then the President of Mercedes Benz Canada mentioned to me that if I was ever in Europe he wanted to make sure that I spent a couple days with him in Stuttgart to "better understand the Mercedes Benz brand" .. something every auto analyst needs to study. At that time I was booked to come to Europe for a little more than five weeks so I told him I'd see if I could come early to take in his offer. I was able to move things around and ended up coming to Europe leaving Canada on June 1'st. Marcus was subsequently moved to become President of Mercedes Benz UK the fourth largest market for the brand. I phoned him and offered him an out for this trip thinking that the last thing he needed in his new role was to take two days and show an auto analyst from Canada around Stuttgart. He would have nothing of it and so we ended up on Friday meeting in Stuttgart and today (Saturday) we spend the entire day exploring the history of the company and it was a spectacular day. This will take a number of blog entries to cover so have patience with me.


On the agenda were a number of things the first of which I'm blogging with this entry. First up was a visit to Mercedes Classic .... not a museum but a centre for the restoration of old Mercedes vehicles. About half their work is for the Mercedes Benz museum but the other half is restoring vehicles for private collectors. This is NOT a museum and not open to the public per se although the public may buy one of the restored vehicles on display in the lobby.... that is if you have a few million Euros to spare. It takes over a year to properly restore a vintage vehicle and no detail is left to chance. They find original parts and if they can't find them they machine them to the original specifications. 


We had the privilege of a special tour with the manager of the centre, Peter Legler and his head of sales and marketing, Frank Reichert. And are they ever knowledgable. Engineering is NOT my specialty in this industry so I didn't understand much of what I was looking at but they patiently explained to me everything I saw and totally ignored my ignorance of the subject matter. It was fascinating and I can imagine someone steeped in Mercedes history would consider this a dream tour. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot and this was only part one of the tour.

History means more than places or institutions: Material culture plays a vital role in preserving the past, and The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach (a suburb of Stuttgart) serves as "a guardian of the brand's tradition" by restoring historic cars and supporting owners of vintage Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

The Classic Center has several functions:

• It restores cars for the Mercedes-Benz Museum, other car museums, and private collectors;

• It supplies parts (and, in some cases, makes custom parts) for "oldtimer" cars, meaning vehicles that are more than 20 years old;

• It buys, sells, brokers, and even rents Mercedes-Benz classic cars;

• It supports "Classic Partners" such as dealers, independent workshops, and Mercedes-Benz clubs around the world.

Although the Classic Center isn't a tourist attraction per se, it welcomes visits by Mercedes-Benz owners, mechanics, and enthusiasts.


I wish I could spend a full day here with my best camera equipment. I did not bring my D3x with me from Paris and obviously did not have proper lighting equipment but I did capture some great images. You also may not fully understand and or appreciate what you see in these pictures but you will have no choice but to admire the beauty of these vehicles.


Life if good .. enjoy.


Auto Guru in Europe