What is Mercedes-Benz?

Who makes Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a German luxury automaker headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, and is the flagship brand of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Founded in 1926 through the merger of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (founded by Gottlieb Daimler in 1890) and Benz & Cie. (founded by Karl Benz in 1883), Mercedes-Benz traces its heritage to the 1885 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, generally recognized as the world's first automobile. Mercedes-Benz produces passenger cars, commercial vans and electric vehicles at 30 plants worldwide. The S-Class has defined the luxury sedan segment continuously since 1972, the AMG performance division produces hand-built engines under the One Man One Engine principle, and Mercedes-EQ is the dedicated electric sub-brand. The G-Class, in production since 1979, remains one of the longest-running passenger-vehicle nameplates without a redesign of its core architecture. Mercedes-Benz Group AG trades on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under MBG. Recall data for every Mercedes-Benz VIN is reported to NHTSA, and EPA fuel-economy ratings, IIHS crash-test scores and J.D. Power dependability studies provide independent benchmarks. ForCar.org decodes any Mercedes-Benz VIN against NHTSA's dataset to reveal trim, factory options, open recalls and original Monroney sticker MSRP.

Karl Benz patented the first internal-combustion automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, on January 29, 1886. Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach independently built their first automobile the same year. The two competing companies — Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft — merged in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz AG and adopted the Mercedes-Benz brand name. Mercedes was originally the daughter of Daimler distributor Emil Jellinek, who used the name on his 1900 racing entries.

Technology it is known for: MBUX infotainment with Hey Mercedes, 4MATIC all-wheel drive, AIRMATIC adaptive air suspension, AMG hand-built engines, DRIVE PILOT Level 3 conditional autonomy.

This page covers the Mercedes-Benz automobile brand within Mercedes-Benz Group AG — not the separate Daimler Truck Holding (commercial trucks) spun off in 2021.

Where Mercedes-Benz cars are actually built

A badge says where a company is registered, not where its cars were bolted together. The first three characters of any VIN — the world manufacturer identifier — say the second thing, and that is what we counted: 15,991 vehicles on record, 9 distinct manufacturer codes.

Read your own: the first character is the region, the first three together identify the plant's manufacturer. A Mercedes-Benz beginning WDD was assembled in Germany.

All Mercedes-Benz models 40

Every Mercedes-Benz model we track, grouped by body type. Click any model for its VIN decoder, recalls, MPG, safety and ForCar Reliability Score — broken down by year.

Mercedes-Benz Cars & sedans 11

Mercedes-Benz More models 29

Mercedes-Benz by the numbers

What the federal records say about the marque. Each line links to the full breakdown by model and year.

Mercedes-Benz hybrids & electric models

Mercedes-Benz's electrified lineup — 2 hybrids and 1 electric / plug-in. Click any model for its full powertrain, MPG and range by year.

Mercedes-Benz hybrids 2

Mercedes-Benz electric & plug-in 1

Electrified variants from EPA fueleconomy.gov powertrain data. A model may offer gas, hybrid and electric versions across years.

How to read a Mercedes-Benz VIN

Every Mercedes-Benz built since 1981 carries a unique 17-character VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). It encodes where and when the vehicle was made, its engine and body — here's what each part means:

The remaining digits — engine (8th), model-year letter (10th) and plant — follow the universal SAE standard. The whole position-by-position breakdown — year codes 2001–2026, country codes, stamping locations — lives in our VIN decoder tool.

Who owns Mercedes-Benz, and what you get

Mercedes-Benz belongs to Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Mercedes-Benz competes in the global luxury and ultra-luxury segments against BMW, Audi, Lexus and Genesis, with the Maybach sub-brand reaching into Bentley and Rolls-Royce price territory. The S-Class introduces technology — airbags, ABS, ESC, Level 3 autonomy — that subsequently propagates through the lineup. AMG variants compete with BMW M and Audi RS for performance buyers, with prices typically 50-100% above the base model.

⚠ Worth knowing before you rely on it: across our complaint records the typical car reaches the halfway point of its faults at five years, while basic cover here runs 4 years / 50,000 miles. See when Mercedes-Benz models actually start to break →