Mercedes-Benz models

Mercedes-Benz dates its founding to 1926, when Daimler and Benz merged, but its roots go back to the 1880s and the people generally credited with inventing the automobile. Based in Stuttgart, it has spent its whole existence as the default symbol of the luxury car, the badge that signals you've arrived.

The brand's real contribution is engineering that later became standard everywhere. Crumple zones, anti-lock brakes, and a long list of safety and comfort firsts tended to appear on an S-Class before trickling down to the rest of the industry. The three-pointed star has stood for solidity and status in equal measure for generations.

Today the range is enormous, from compact hatchbacks up to the S-Class and Maybach, plus the EQ electric models and AMG performance cars. Some argue the brand stretched the badge thin by chasing volume at the lower end. But at its core, Mercedes-Benz still sells the same thing it always has: the sense that you are in the most thoroughly engineered, most prestigious car on the road.