16. Lastly, 8 Fast Facts About Mercedes-Benz.
In the below article you will find 8 Fast Facts About Mercedes-Benz
Have you ever wondered why most German cars do not go faster than 250 km/h? Well, there is a Gentlemen’s Agreement between Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi to limit their standard car speed to 250 km/h. (155 mph)
The limitation was not only intended to increase safety on German roads, but car makers also did not want to get involved in a race and spend resources to produce the fastest car. As a result, auto manufacturers electronically locked standard vehicles at 250 km/h.
There is a pedestrian bridge in Bad Aussee, Austria – 450 km from Stuttgart. It has the shape of a Mercedes-Benz star built with the help of Mercedes-Benz in 2005. With a diameter of 27 meters, it is the biggest Mercedes star in the world.
In Germany (and in many European cities), many taxis are Mercedes-Benz. Although it may seem a bit surprising at first glance, there are logical reasons behind it.
Mercedes has been producing vehicles with diesel engines since 1936, and in Germany, they were the sole car manufacturer to offer diesel engines in the upper car segment until the 1990s. Since they are commercial vehicles, taxis have to be economical. For this reason, they usually work with diesel engines.
Additionally, robust engines, comfort, and taxi packages such as radio-integrated taximeter, washable upholstery, taxi color (beige/ivory cream), and a special discount tempted taxi companies to go with Mercedes-Benz.
There is a famous German saying: If I want to drive a Mercedes, I call a taxi!
Mercedes is also a universal bank. Officially Mercedes-Benz Bank AG, licensed in 2002 and headquartered in Stuttgart, offers leasing, financing services, various insurance, and banking operations. It is currently present in 40 countries with around one million customers.
Raymond Tse, a high school student, died at 15 in 1981 in Hong Kong. His remains were sent to New Jersey, where his 28-year-old Chinese-American brother David lived. Since he had a passion for driving and always wanted to drive a Mercedes, his big brother David commissioned a 36-ton granite replica of an 82 Mercedes-Benz 240D limousine in his brother’s graveyard at Rosedale Cemetery in Northern New Jersey.
The creators deliberately left out the Mercedes star on the hood and the side mirrors for vandalism concerns. The Mercedes-Benz Tombstone was made of a single granite and cost nearly $800.000 in today’s value.
It is also possible to come across Mercedes-themed tombstones in the graves of mobsters in Russia.
The two founders of Mercedes, Carl Benz, and Gottlieb Daimler, have never met each other. Their places of residence, Stuttgart and Manheim, are an average of 100 kilometers away, and they made world-changing inventions in the same years, but they had no opportunity to chat.
In 1897, Daimler and Benz attended the meeting of Germany’s first Automobile Association as founding members. Benz describes the meeting held in a hotel in Berlin in his memoirs: “I’ve never spoken to Gottlieb Daimler in my life. I saw him once in the distance in Berlin. I wanted to get closer and meet him, but he got lost in the crowd.”
When Daimler-Benz was founded, Carl Benz (82) had retired from his active working life, and Gottlieb Daimler passed away 26 years ago at age 65.
Hassan I, ruler of Morocco from 1873 to 1894, was the Mercedes-Benz company’s first customer. The ruler from the Alawid dynasty bought the first Daimler motor car in August 1892. The record of the first sale still survives.
The most expensive car ever sold is a Mercedes-Benz. The German car giant sold one of two 300 SLR Uhlenhaut coupés in its museum at auction to an unknown collector for 135 million euros. In its day, the eight-cylinder coupe was the fastest road car, with a top speed of 180 mph (290 km/h).
Before that, the most valuable car in the world was a Ferrari 250 GTO owned by former Microsoft chief developer Gregory Whitten. He sold it at RM Sotheby’s action with a price of 48.4 million dollars in 2018.