Sindelfingen Factory Tour and Mercedes Benz Museum
 

Recently, my work took me to Europe and I had the opportunity to take a trip to the Mercedes Benz factory in Stuttgart Germany. For those in the know, the actual factory is located in a small town outside of the city, known as Sindelfingen.

http://i.imgur.com/0gS5dMVl.jpg

The factory employs around 20,000 people and has its own fire station. To give you an idea of the size of the plant, the visitors center (where this model can be seen) is located at the very top center of this picture directly to the right of the smoke stacks.

http://i.imgur.com/0hCE2Yml.jpg

(Smoke stacks to the right of the visitors center)

http://i.imgur.com/VSLKiiDl.jpg


If you've ever been lucky enough to purchase a new Benz through the European Delivery Program, you will be familiar with this place.

http://i.imgur.com/BtNVgMrl.jpg

Excited folks picking up their vehicles directly from the factory!

http://i.imgur.com/dLkOeLIl.jpg

Now, I broke some rules to get these pictures. You're not supposed to take pictures in the factory, but being the deviant that I am I took a few. I hope you enjoy!

http://i.imgur.com/0Wt57HJl.jpg

They first drive you in a bus to the stamping factory. This is where you will see large robots move half a ton of metal around with very little effort.

http://i.imgur.com/DOF5JRYl.jpg

If you look towards the center of this picture. You can see a robot arm posing for us!

http://i.imgur.com/NsV2nVql.jpg

Over the years robots have slowly creeped into the production line. However, Daimler still employs several thousand workers to hand assemble certain items into the cars. I wasn't able to take a picture of it, but they have a machine that actually moves the dash into the vehicles. Seriously it's mind blowing!

http://i.imgur.com/EW7sulsl.jpg

This is something that's more special for me. My first Benz was a 300D from the 1985 model year that I drove to around 388k miles before selling it. You guys should recognize this as the venerable w123 chasis. This is where I got yelled at in German for taking pictures when I wasn't supposed to. I've always been one to not follow the rules, but after getting yelled at in German I feel less inclined to break them now. If you want to see more of the factory floor and not get yelled, take a look at this great video on youtube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjVbpQhpj28

http://i.imgur.com/PSgg83jl.jpg

(disclaimer: not my photo). On the other side of town, you have the actual Mercedes Benz Museum. This museum is a trophy collection for the Mercedes Benz brand, but it also does a great job of tying in the history of automobiles with that of Mercedes Benz.

http://i.imgur.com/5sgyfRAl.jpg

Race cars! The museum is pretty awesome. It's a great story of the history of the automobile in Stuttgart starring Gottlied Daimler and Karl Benz. Then they tie it all into the brand.

http://i.imgur.com/dgD152Rl.jpg

Strange, I distinctly remember a T-Rex chomping the roof off.

http://i.imgur.com/uE87BGsl.jpg

Seriously, I love the 2nd Jurassic Park.

http://i.imgur.com/xpF4Uj3l.jpg

My final picture from my trip was a picture of a 240D. As my first Benz, the w123 chasis is close to my heart.

http://i.imgur.com/tjVPHgVl.jpg

You have to love the looks of these old cars.

http://i.imgur.com/VktbtNcl.jpg

Of course, a trip to the Mercedes museum isn't complete without the Pope Mobile!

Thanks for sharing! I'd love to get there and visit myself.

I was there in 2007. Trip of a lifetime............

German language in itself always sounds like you are getting yelled at.

True, but Germans are fanatic rule followers. When driving if you do something they think is rude they holler and shake fists.

When I was there in 73 I was entering the autobahn and there was some very very slow vehicle on the ramp. I dropped to the apron and passed him. Wooo Hooo you'd have thunk I shot someone!;)