NERDS ABROAD Germany 2012 - Mercedes Benz Museum

NERDS ABROAD Germany 2012 - Mercedes Benz Museum

By Martin Gonzales

Your tactical squad of car nerds has been in Germany for the past week taking in the sites and sounds of what is truly a car-nerd's paradise.  Any self proclaimed gear-head must add this country to their bucket list of things to do.  Why?  Well, in the coming weeks we will take you on a virtual trip that will undoubtely answer that question.  What better place to start than the birth place of self propelled transportation - Mercedes Benz.

Our tour of the factory...

Our original plan was to start our visit with the German manufacturer's factory, but we were met with a stern "Nein!" at the door.  Apparently the factory is not a readily available tourist attraction and if you want one you must call weeks ahead of time - which we did not.  So our tour of the factory was short lived and limited to roaming the outside fence and checking out the hardware in the employee parking structure.  After a few minutes of looking like we were casing the place, we jumped in our car and were off to Stuttgart.

Though Smart Cars are a dime a dozen around these parts, this "Sportster" caught our eye.  Check out that stance!

As we neared the museum we were immediately taken back by its sheer size.  The 155 foot tall spiral building houses 9 floors of automotive history and over 160 cars!  What is specially neat about the Mercedes Benz Museum is its unique spiral layout that takes you through their 125+ years of automotive development and the history of its iconic brand. 

The Mercedes Benz Center Stuttgart is right next to the museum.  Prospective customers can look through all of the avaiable Mercedes Benz models and existing customers can take advantage of the state of the art service center on the lower levels.