Mercedes is celebrating 140 years of making cars in 2026. Way back in 1886, Karl Benz took out a patent on his first “Motorwagen” – a simple, single-cylinder three-wheeled contraption with steering that used a boat-like tiller and seats that resembled a park bench. It may have been an oddity, but Benz worked with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach to perfect the recipe, and by 1901, the Daimler-Benz company was first using the Mercedes name, in honour of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who helped to finance the fledgling company.
It means that Mercedes can lay a solid claim to being the oldest carmaker in the world (Peugeot, for instance, as a company is older, but it started life making kitchen goods, and only began making cars in 1896, actually following much correspondence between Armand Peugeot and Gottlieb Daimler).
It’s appropriate, then, that Mercedes is going to hit a rich seam of new models in 2026, starting with the CLA four-door coupe/saloon, which will finally reach Irish shores in April, now carrying the European Car Of The Year trophy, the first time Mercedes has won that award in 52 years.
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