Desirable Cars
MERCEDES-BENZ MODERN & CLASSIC ICONS

Desirable Mercedes-Benz Cars

The Gullwing's upward-opening doors weren't a styling choice at all — the racing spaceframe underneath left no room for conventional ones, and the rules only said doors had to work, not which way they opened.

Engineering Ambition, Every Era

Whatever decade you look at, there's usually a Mercedes somewhere near the technical cutting edge. The 300SL's tubular spaceframe chassis, adapted almost directly from the 1952 racer that had already won Le Mans and the Mille Miglia, used high structural side sills for genuine rigidity — sills tall enough that a conventional door would have sliced straight through the middle of anyone trying to get in. Racing regulations of the era required fully functioning doors but never specified how they had to open, so Mercedes' engineers hinged them at the roof instead, creating the silhouette that gave the car its nickname almost by accident.

That same instinct for solving a genuine engineering problem in a way that happens to look spectacular runs straight through to the current range, whether it's the elegant "Pagoda" roofline of the 280SL or the Formula 1-derived hybrid powertrain underpinning the modern AMG ONE. Below are the models we've covered so far.