# The Legendary Cars That Defined Mercedes-Benz | Otto Explains | AutoTronix **Section:** Otto Explains **Canonical:** https://autotronix.om/otto/mercedes-benz-legendary-cars **Language:** English **Arabic version:** https://autotronix.om/ar/otto/mercedes-benz-legendary-cars --- ## Short Answer Nine cars changed Mercedes-Benz itself. The Benz Patent Motor Car of 1886 began the automobile, the Mercedes 35 hp of 1900 set the pattern of the modern car and gave the brand its name, and the 300 SL tied the road cars to racing engineering. The 1959 Fintail introduced the safety body, the 1972 S-Class gave the flagship its name and ABS, the 190 and the A-Class took the brand into smaller cars, the M-Class into SUVs and the EQC into electric cars. --- ## What earns a car a place on this list? A car is here only because of what it changed at Mercedes-Benz: its engineering, the kinds of car it sells, its place in motor racing or the way it names its models. Fame, beauty and rarity alone are not enough, so many celebrated models appear instead in Otto’s selection of ten iconic Mercedes-Benz cars. The company’s own story, from its founders to today’s Mercedes-Benz Group, is told in [the history of Mercedes-Benz](https://autotronix.om/otto/mercedes-benz-history). --- ## How did the Benz Patent Motor Car start everything? Carl Benz’s three-wheeler of 1886 changed more than one company: it began the automobile. Mercedes-Benz describes it as the first car to combine a combustion engine, of just 0.55 kW (0.75 hp), with a light, modern chassis designed as one coherent whole. Benz applied for the patent on 29 January 1886, and the company still treats patent number 37435 as the automobile’s birth certificate. From that single invention grew a business: the Benz Velo of 1894, with some 1,200 built, was the world’s first production car. The legacy is the claim at the heart of the brand to this day, that it built the first car. --- ## Why did the Mercedes 35 hp matter so much? Built in 1900 at the request of Emil Jellinek and developed by Wilhelm Maybach at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), the Mercedes 35 hp broke with the horse-drawn carriage: a powerful engine, a wide track, a long wheelbase and a low centre of gravity. Mercedes-Benz calls it the first modern automobile. Its honeycomb radiator, patented by Maybach on 20 September 1900, was decisive in its wins at the Nice Racing Week of 1901 and became the basis of the brand’s radiator design. The car carried the name of Jellinek’s daughter, Mercedes, which DMG protected as a brand name in 1902, the same year the Mercedes-Simplex models built on its design arrived. One car gave the company both its template and its name. --- ## How did the 300 SL connect the road cars to racing? The 300 SL began as the W 194 racing car of 1952, with which Mercedes-Benz returned to motor racing after the war. The road-going 300 SL “Gullwing” (W 198), built from 1954 to 1957, kept the racing car’s tubular space frame and was the first production car with four-stroke direct petrol injection. It was part of a wider return to the top of motor sport: Juan Manuel Fangio won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1954 and 1955 in the W 196 R, and Mercedes-Benz took the 1955 Sports Car World Championship. From then on, racing engineering and the road cars were openly linked, and the engineering of the injection system is covered in Otto’s guide to Mercedes-Benz engines. --- ## What did the 1959 Fintail change about car safety? The W 111 saloon of 1959, known as the “Fintail”, was the first passenger car in the world with a safety body: a rigid passenger compartment between energy-absorbing crumple zones at the front and rear. The idea came from Béla Barényi, a Mercedes-Benz engineer, whose patent is dated 23 January 1951. Mercedes-Benz calls it a decisive departure from making car bodies “as rigid as possible”, and at the same time it began scientific accident research with systematic crash tests. The safety body became the foundation of passive safety, and safety has defined the brand’s reputation ever since. --- ## How did the 1972 S-Class shape the whole range? The luxury saloons of the 116 series (1972–1980) were the first to be officially named S-Class. The idea of naming a car by its class letter spread from there: in 1993 Mercedes-Benz gave every model range a class letter in the same way, beginning with the C-Class. The 116 series also brought a safety milestone. In 1978 it gave the world premiere of ABS, the digital anti-lock braking system developed with Bosch, which stops the wheels locking under emergency braking so the car can still be steered. --- ## Why was the 190 a turning point? Launched in November 1982, the 190 (W 201) created a third model family below the brand’s upper mid-range and luxury cars. Mercedes-Benz even chose a deliberately lower number for it: the engine displaced 1,997 cc, yet the brand named the car 190 to position the new compact class. The 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution versions became successful DTM racing cars, and 1,879,630 cars had been built when production ended in August 1993. Its successor, the 202 series of May 1993, was the first C-Class. --- ## What did the first A-Class change? Shown in Geneva in March 1997, the first A-Class (168 series) brought Mercedes-Benz into a much smaller format with a sandwich floor: in a frontal collision the powertrain can slide underneath the passenger compartment. From November 1997 it was the world’s first series-production car with the Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) as standard, a system that had appeared only two years earlier in the S-Class. ESP later became standard in most cars from all manufacturers. --- ## Why did the M-Class matter? The M-Class (163 series) was unveiled in April 1997 at a plant built specifically for it in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in the United States. With permanent all-wheel drive and independent suspension at both ends, it combined on-road comfort with off-road ability and gave Mercedes-Benz a strong position in the SUV segment, which was only just emerging. Its line continues under a different name: since the 2015 renaming of the SUVs, the M-Class has been the GLE. --- ## What did the EQC begin? Mercedes-Benz showed the Concept EQ at the 2016 Paris Motor Show and unveiled the EQC in Stockholm in 2018 as the first Mercedes-Benz under EQ, its product and technology brand for electric cars. Electric drive has since spread across the range, and the newest electric models carry ordinary class names, such as the C 400 4MATIC electric of 2026. How a fully electric car differs from a hybrid is explained in [hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars](https://autotronix.om/otto/hybrid-vs-plug-in-hybrid-vs-electric). --- ## Common Questions **Who invented the crumple zone at Mercedes-Benz?** Béla Barényi, a Mercedes-Benz engineer. His patent for a safety body with deformable zones at the front and rear is dated 23 January 1951, and the W 111 Fintail of 1959 was the first car built with it. **Was the 300 SL a racing car before it was a road car?** Yes. The road car of 1954 was developed from the W 194 racing car with which Mercedes-Benz returned to motor racing in 1952. **Which car was the first with ESP as standard?** The first Mercedes-Benz A-Class, from November 1997. ESP had made its debut in February 1995 in the S 600 Coupé. **Where was the first M-Class built?** In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at a plant Mercedes-Benz built specifically for it. The M-Class was unveiled there in April 1997. --- ## Related Otto Explanations - Why You Need a Pre-Purchase Inspection Before Buying a Used Car: https://autotronix.om/otto/pre-purchase-inspection --- ## Related Services - AutoTronix Garage: https://autotronix.om/garage - AutoTronix Lab: https://autotronix.om/lab - AutoTronix PERFORMANCE: https://autotronix.om/performance --- ## Book a Service WhatsApp: +968 9966 8600 https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=96899668600&type=phone_number&app_absent=0 Location: Mabellah Industrial, Street 7, Muscat — Saturday to Thursday, 9 AM to 9 PM