The 30 Best Mercedes-Benzes of All Time

Mercedes-Benz is the direct descendant of the first automobile. The company has been at the forefront of motoring for 125 years, and it has produced top-quality vehicles the entire time. While Mercedes is most known for luxury sedans like the 600 Pullman and the S-Class line, it is no stranger to motorsport, either. It has produced some of the most iconic racing and sports cars ever made. The company is a symbol of German engineering and industry as much as Ferrari is a symbol of national pride to Italians. Out of all the fantastic Benzes produced over the years, we have chosen these 30 as our favorites.

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Year: 1979

The W126 was the most successful S-class in Mercedes history. It gave buyers everything they wanted, from power to comfort to innovative technology.

Year: 2006

Big luxury sedans aren't usually the fastest things in the world. But they also don't usually have AMG-made V12 engines powering them. The 2006 S65 AMG is all about both having and eating one's cake. This is the car for the person who wants a limo with sports car performance and handling that seems totally at odds with the sheer size of the S-class. While the whole of the W221 S-class lineup is brilliant, we just had to single out the S65 for being surprisingly brilliant.

Year: 2011

The SLS AMG has one of the greatest engine notes available right now. It's very capable, very comfortable, and surprisingly easy to drive. Our only gripe with it is that the 300 SL's roofline just didn't translate well into 21st century design language. In an odd twist, the convertible fixes the only thing wrong with the SLS--the rear end--and lets the driver enjoy that godlike sound even more.

Year: 1968

The W114 was the first car that Mercedes engineered in the post-war period. It was attractive, powerful, and well-equipped. Mercedes brought this out to prove that even after 85 percent of its facilities were destroyed by Allied bombers, Daimler-Benz hadn't lost greatness.

Year: 1991

In the '80s when the W140 chassis was developed, over $1 Billion was spent to create it. The money was well spent, as the S-class went on to dominate its segment. This platform was even selected to be the heart of the Maybach brand, and it did an admirable job while that brand existed.

Year: 1953

The Ponton was the higher volume model that Mercedes used to recover from being nearly leveled by bombing runs in WWII. It was available as a sedan, a roadster, and a cabriolet. It offered comfort, Mercedes innovation, and good performance and handling at a price that wasn't totally astronomical.

Year: 2006

This was the car that started the whole "four door coupe" movement, which has made the four doors of recent years much sleeker and sexier.

Year: 1946

The Mercedes UNIMOG is one of the most capable and durable trucks ever made. Because of its incredibly tough construction it's been used for everything from farming (its original intended use) to off-road military transportation to racing in the Dakar rally. More impressive still, it's actually good at all of these things.

Year: 1959

We mostly think of the S-class as a large-and-in-charge type of sedan, but in the '50s, offering that sort of car as a two door was a fairly normal thing to do. Normal is not how this particular car should be described, though, as it is one of the most gorgeous Benzes ever made. The bodystyle was continued for years after the S-class upon which it was based was replaced for stylistic reasons alone.

Year: 2007

It's more than a bit idiotic, but it's awesome. One can choose to pay Mercedes a hefty sum to make a car with all the latest gadgets and luxuries in it. One can then upgrade that to a massive sum to put a motorsport-derived engine and suspension in it. If that's not enough, a princely sum can then be paid to take all those luxuries and gadgets back out, and to tighten the suspension some more. This is the Black Series of AMG cars. What makes them stupid is the same thing that makes them brilliant. They are tools that are perfected for only one task, like a $450 hand-forged chef's knife. They may be terrible at picking up groceries, but they are heaven on a track.

Year: 1955

The 300SL was brilliant. But it was really expensive. So Mercedes created the 190SL to serve as a cheaper way to enjoy the thrills of the Sport Leicht line. It was nowhere near as powerful as its older brother, but it was equally fun to drive by virtue of weighing less and being extremely nimble. While the 300SL is the progenitor of the line, the format of the SL-class is derived more from this car.

Year: 1995

You expected to see a ton of sexy sedans and sportscars in this list. But a commercial van? It had to show up here by virtue of being the world's most successful van. Sprinters are used for everything from transporting telecom equipment to ferrying VIPs about. Because of the efficiency and capability of the Sprinter, big, truck-based vans like the E-350 are losing market share, and fast. In the U.S., they're sold mostly with a Dodge badge, as a result of the ill-fated Daimler-Chrysler marriage.

Year: 1961

Even though Mercedes has made gigantic limousines like the Pullman and the Grosser, sometimes heads of state want something classy and luxurious but not quite as ostentatious. The W189 300D Adenauer, named for the German chancellor who went through six of these, was just that car. It's also one of the most elegant and understated uses of the falling line, the character line that curves from the top front to the bottom rear of many Mercedes automobiles.

Year: 1936

The 500K is drop-dead gorgeous. It's a massive two seater, that is powered by a 7.0L or 7.1L engine. It was one of the fastest cars in the world at the time. Only 150 were produced, which has made the 500K one of the most desirable, most expensive collector cars in existence. Rather than having a trunk, a third seat folded out of the rear of the vehicle, where a person could precariously perch in one of the world's fastest cars. Mercedes called this "the mother-in-law seat."

Year: 2008

In many ways, the C63 AMG is like an old-school American muscle car. It has more power than it probably should, is an absolute blast to drive, and loves to get its ass-end out. Recent upgrades have made the handling a little more neutral, but the core dynamic of crazy oversteer is still there, and we love it for that.

Year: 1979

W123. That combination of one letter and three numbers is beloved by wise Americans and Europeans, as well as the entire continent of Africa. The diesel W123s that Mercedes made are comfortable, powerful, efficient, and damn near impossible to kill. Africans love them because they can soak up the bumps of the continent's many pot-holed dirt roads without falling apart, and because they're tough enough to survive, requiring only simple repairs.

Year: 2003

$450,000 is a lot of money. The SLR McLaren was worth ever penny. From the 617hp engine to the state-of-the-art traction control system and the turbine-shaped wheels that suck in extra air to cool the brakes, the SLR McLaren was one of the most capable supercars ever made. It damn well better be at that price.

Year: 1966

While the W110 was certainly a nice car, what made it so significant is that it was the first car to have a crumple zone. Mercedes was doing a lot to increase safety in cars in the '60s, and what was probably the greatest innovation of this period was the crumple-zone. Rather than just letting the forces of an impact travel into whatever skulls they could find, Mercedes decided to create softer parts of the car that would absorb as much of the impact as possible, rather than transferring it to the delicate, squishy humans inside.

Year: 1939

The 770K Grosser was made for state officials, but we like this car for stylistic reasons.

Year: 1979

Mercedes-Benz is mostly known for luxurious sedans and the occasional killer sports car. But when the military was the target market, Daimler and friends managed to put out one of the best off-road SUVs ever made. If the Land Rover isn't your cup of earl grey, the G-wagen should be next on the list.

Year: 1997

What's awesome about the CLK GTR isn't just that it was a bad-ass and competitive race car, it's that two years after its debut Mercedes released a limited number of them as road cars. At the time, it was the world's most expensive production car, at $1.55 million. Well worth it, if you ask us.

Year: 1968

The 600 Pullman was a massive limousine built for world leaders. It was powered by the awesome 6.3L V8 of its day, and it included features like a liquor cabinet of Czech crystal. Everyone from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung to Elvis Presley and Hugh Hefner had one. This is the ultimate pimp-mobile.

Year: 1934

For the Nurburgring race in 1934, grand prix cars were limited to 750 kilograms. The car Mercedes showed up with tipped the scales at 751. Alfred Neubauer had the bright idea of scraping all of the white paint off of the W25 race car, which not only allowed the car to race and win, but made it look brilliant. This started a long line of paintless silver German racing cars. We just hope that Mercedes will start putting clear anodized finishes on the body of the SLS AMG to show off the aluminium beneath.

Year: 1930

Three hundred horsepower and 507 ft-lbs of torque is a lot today. Three hundred horsepower and 507 ft-lbs of torque was Earth-shattering in 1930. The 7.0L supercharged straight six in the 710 SSK made just that, and thus propelled one of the most striking two tons of metal ever made all the way to 120mph.

Year: 1987

Sometimes it really does seem like everything Cosworth, the fantastic British tuning firm, touches turns to gold. The Mercedes 190E Cosworth is a perfect example of this. It was originally designed to be a rally car, but it was outclassed by the newly allowed AWD cars. As such, it became a four-pot performance icon and proved that there is, in fact, a replacement for displacement.

Year: 1991

The 300E was a nice, but otherwise normal Mercedes sedan. The 500E was something entirely different. In 1990, Porsche had been working on a four-door model that eventually got canned. When Mercedes made the decision to make a high performance E, Porsche was contracted to help design and produce it. As a result, the 1991 500E has the nickname of "the four-door Porsche," which still hasn't been supplanted by the Panamera, seeing as that is known as "the hunchback of Stuttgart."

Year: 1968

The 300 SEL really set the stage for today's S-Class of Benzes. Not only was it 100mm longer than the 300S, upon which it was based, but it featured a 6.3L V8 that made 250hp and an amazing 434 ft-lbs of torque. This combination of extreme luxury and a powerful and sporty car set the stage for what Mercedes has become in the last several decades. This was the S65 AMG of its day.

Year: 1954

The gullwing door was invented for this car. What's brilliant is that it wasn't invented in order to be flashy or garner attention. The chassis design necessitated it. Extra tubes were added to the frame in the middle of where the door would have been in order to increase stiffness, but this would prevent people from getting into or out of the car unless the engineerings came up with something clever. They did. In order to have the sill of the door higher to accommodate the chassis, the gullwing door was invented. The fact that it wasn't just some crazy show-car feature makes it even cooler. That wouldn't matter at all if the 300SL wasn't one of the greatest sportscars ever made, which it is.

Year: 1936

The 540K Spezial Roadster was one of the supercars of its day. It was powered by a 5.4L supercharged inline eight, which made 180hp and rode on four-wheel independent suspension. The Ford Mustang still doesn't have that. Even though the performance was top notch, a big part of what made the 540K so spezial was the beautiful styling by Hermann Ahrens. It is one of our Coolest Looking Cars.

Year: 1954

The 300 SLR was a killer race car. In its coupe format, it may have looked like it was derived from the 300SL, doors and all, but it really owed more to the W196 F1 car than the famous gullwing. Three hundred and ten horsepower was a ton back in 1955, and legendary gentleman-racer Sir Stirling Moss piloted this awesome machine to victory at the Mille Miglia in 1955. Moss called it "the greatest sports car ever built."