50 free Mercedes-Benz trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Mercedes-Benz can claim the first automobile, the first long-distance road trip, the first production airbag and the most expensive car ever sold, so there is no shortage of material. This quiz covers the whole story: Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, Emil Jellinek's daughter Mercédès, the meaning of the three-pointed star, the Silver Arrows and Fangio, the Gullwing, the S-Class safety firsts, the Shah of Iran's G-Wagen, AMG's hand-built engines and the modern Formula One dynasty. The opening questions are easy for anyone who follows cars; the later ones dig into plant locations, production numbers, corporate name changes and the odd nickname of an AMG racing saloon. Every answer was verified against Wikipedia's articles on the company, its models and its people, so you can trust the dates and figures. Ideal for petrolheads, quiz nights and anyone who has ever wondered why the star has three points.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Mercedes name comes from the daughter of which Austrian businessman, who ordered the 1901 Mercedes 35 hp?
Emil Jellinek
He raced under his daughter's name and registered it as a trademark in 1902.
Q 02How old was Mercédès Jellinek when her father began painting her name on the cars he raced?
10
'Mercedes' is Spanish for 'godsend', which suited a father betting his fortune on motor racing.
Q 03Which 1886 vehicle is widely regarded as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine?
Benz Patent-Motorwagen
Karl Benz's three-wheeler was financed in part by his wife Bertha's dowry.
Q 04In what year did the companies of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler merge to form Daimler-Benz?
1926
The first cars badged Mercedes-Benz rolled out that same year.
Q 05In which German city is Mercedes-Benz headquartered?
Stuttgart
The complex there also houses the Mercedes-Benz Museum and an assembly plant.
Q 06What is the Mercedes-Benz brand slogan?
The Best or Nothing
Two of the other slogans belong to Audi and BMW.
Q 07Daimler's three-pointed star was suggested by Gottlieb's sons to symbolise engines for land, water and what?
Air
DMG formally adopted the symbol in June 1909, nine years after Daimler's death.
Q 08Roughly how far was Bertha Benz's 1888 one-way drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim?
106 km
She took her sons Richard and Eugen, aged 13 and 15, without telling her husband.
Q 09Where did Bertha Benz buy fuel on her 1888 drive, effectively creating the world's first filling station?
A city pharmacy
The car had no fuel tank, so she needed the petroleum solvent ligroin from the Stadt-Apotheke in Wiesloch.
Q 10What did Bertha Benz use to clear a blocked fuel line during her 1888 journey?
A hat pin
She also used her garter as insulation and had a cobbler fit leather to the failing brakes, inventing brake linings.
Q 11Wilhelm Maybach co-founded DMG, maker of the Mercedes 35 hp, with Daimler in which year?
1890
Their aim was to build small, high-speed engines; the first factory stood in Cannstatt.
Q 12The 300 SL sports car of 1954 is famous for what unusual feature?
Gullwing doors
Its lightweight tubular frame made conventional doors impossible, so they hinged at the roof.
Q 13The 300 SL was unusually launched at which motor show in February 1954?
New York
US importer Max Hoffman had pushed for a road car after seeing demand for a high-performance Mercedes.
Q 21Which royal figure suggested the vehicle that became the G-Class?
The Shah of Iran
Development began in 1972 with Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz, Austria; civilians could buy one from 1979.
Q 22In which Austrian city has the G-Class been built since 1979?
Graz
The G in the name is short for Geländewagen, or off-road vehicle.
Q 23In 1980 the Vatican took delivery of a G-Wagen with a clear thermoplastic top to serve as what?
The Popemobile
Mercedes-Benz has supplied the pontiff's vehicles many times since.
Q 14How many 300 SL coupés were built between 1954 and 1957?
1,400
A roadster version followed from 1957 to 1963.
Q 15What record price did a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR coupé fetch in 2022?
€135 million
The sale made it by far the most expensive car ever sold.
Q 16Where was the first Mercedes-Benz factory outside Germany built, in 1951?
Argentina
Australian assembly followed at Port Melbourne from 1959.
Q 17The company's US plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama produced its first vehicle in February 1997. What was it?
An ML320 SUV
The state donated 1,000 acres; the plant now builds the GLE, GLS and electric EQ SUVs.
Q 18The 'S' in S-Class stands for which German word?
Sonderklasse
It means 'special class', and the W116 of 1972 was the first line officially to carry the name.
Q 19In December 1980, which S-Class generation became the first production car with a driver-side airbag?
W126
The W126 also brought seat-belt pretensioners.
Q 20Which safety system did Mercedes-Benz offer on the W116 S-Class in 1978, among the first cars to have it?
Anti-lock brakes
ESP followed in 1995 and PRE-SAFE in 2002.
Q 24What do the letters AMG stand for?
Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach
Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher founded it in 1967; Großaspach was Aufrecht's birthplace.
Q 25Mercedes-AMG has its headquarters in which small German town?
Affalterbach
Most AMG engines are still hand-built under a 'one man, one engine' philosophy.
Q 26What was the affectionate nickname of the AMG 300 SEL 6.3 V8 saloon that raced at the 1971 Spa 24 Hours?
The Red Sow
The oversized saloon finished second overall and put AMG on the map.
Q 27What name was given to the dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix cars of 1934-39?
Silver Arrows
Legend says the white paint was scraped off a W25 to make the 750 kg weight limit, exposing bare aluminium.
Q 28Per Alfred Neubauer's story, how much did the W25 weigh on the scales at the 1934 Eifelrennen?
751 kg
The tale did not surface until 1958 and historians doubt it, but it is too good to let go.
Q 29Which driver won the 1954 and 1955 Formula One drivers' championships for the Mercedes-Benz works team?
Juan Manuel Fangio
The team withdrew from all motorsport at the end of 1955 after the Le Mans disaster.
Q 30Mercedes returned to F1 as a works team in 2010 by buying into which championship-winning outfit?
Brawn GP
The team then hired Nico Rosberg and a returning Michael Schumacher.