Mercedes-Benz isn’t just a legendary luxury automaker— it’s the original automaker . Modern-day Mercedes can trace its roots back to the very first automobile, constructed in 1886. Since then, the company has been an innovator, a trendsetter, a racing juggernaut, and a global status symbol.
The Mercedes SL is the Mercedes in the minds of many ; or maybe it’s the G-Wagen ; or, for many, the S-Class, or, for many others, it’s any one of the incredible AMGs produced over the years . Or their favorite Mercedes is a C-Class hand-me-down that’s getting on in years now and needs rust repair but will always be where their Mercedes story started. There is, in other words, a Mercedes for almost everyone, which is how Mercedes likes it.
The Mercedes-Benz story started in the 19th century when, in 1886, a German engineer named Carl Benz received what’s believed to be the world’s first patent for a wheeled carriage powered by a gasoline engine. His invention, creatively named the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, went on sale in 1888, becoming the first commercially available automobile. (Steam-powered carriages had been attempted since the mid-1700s, but they proved dangerous and impractical and were never commercially viable.
) The Patent-Motorwagen had three wheels, a tiller instead of a steering wheel, and no roof or dashboard, but the 954-cc single-cylinder engine set the format used in nearly every gasoline-powered automobile to this day. Still. Here’s everything you need to .