Mercedes 140 Years, 140 Places event

June 27, 2026

In 1886, Karl Benz was granted a patent for his Motorwagon. This would become the first car, and be the origins of Mercedes-Benz. 2026 is the 140 year anniversary of the company and the car. Mercedes-Benz are therefore running a promotional event to mark this occasion, as well as the launch of the new S-Class.

From what I understand, the event takes the new S Class to 140 different locations around the world. The two cars had various stickers from some of the locations where they had been. They were in Melbourne last week and will be in Brisbane next week.

The Mercedes-Benz club of NSW was asked to help participate in this event. The idea was to try and get 140 cars in a convoy to cross the harbour bridge together. This is a pretty tall ask. The plan was to get two groups, The S-Classes (and predecessors) and the other Mercedes-Benz cars.

The task wasn’t made easier by the weather. It has been cold and rainy the last week. Rain was forecast for the day. The finish point was supposed to be Gough Whitlam Park, where the club old the German Car show. However Gough Whitlam park closes if somebody wrings out a towel nearby, so they had to scramble to find alternative arrangements, which were found in Bass Hill.

I thought club members did very well to put on a strong showing for the day given these challenges. What struck me was the variety. There was a really good selection of classic and modern Mercedes-Benz models. There were even good showings of models that are rarely seen at club events like the W140. While I probably missed a few, I counted about 80 cars:

Classic S Class and Predecessors (26) – W111 (4), W108 (3), W116 (7), W126 (7), W140 (5)
Classic Other Mercedes Benz (26) – W100, R/C107 (8), W110, W113, W114 (3), W123 (3), W124 (7), W463
Modern Mercedes-Benz (30)
New S Class (2)

I took my 250SE Cabriolet. I took two of my kids along, and gave a ride to a friend from Queensland who was visiting for the event. We opened the roof and managed to do the entire event roof open. Luckily, we only hit a bit of rain five minutes from home.

We started at Macquarie university, which was a good meeting point. It took a while to leave the carpark and the kids an I were starting to wonder if the new S Class had broken down. Luckily that turned out not to be the case. The original plan was to have the S Classes and predecessors go, and then the other cars to follow 15 minutes later. This didn’t happen and they left right after. I’m not sure that it was necessarily a bad thing.

The challenge with such a distance to the bridge was that everyone was spread out a lot by the time we got there, so the visual impact wasn’t nearly so great. I was behind a Prado by the time I crossed it.

The finishing spot was pretty good, and they had snacks and drinks there. We all got a gift bag with some nice goodies, including a rather excellent grille badge. I was quite keen to put it on my 250SE when I got home, but it doens’t fit in the thin mesh of the W111 grille. So I’ll probably end up putting it on a different car.

For me, the big attraction of the event was the 140 years thing, and the large number of club cars out on the day. The new S Class doesn’t hold a great deal of interest. It’s not really my cup of tea, I find the hundreds of small Mercedes-Benz logos all over it rather tacky. It’s better than the GLS though. Considering the success of models like the W126, the S Class sells in tiny numbers in Australia now. It is largely driven by China where SUVs do not have the cachet of a large sedan. On that front, I think they have it right.

The kids and I enjoyed the event and having a day out in the 250SE. That afternoon I also took the car to visit the son of the original owner, who picked it up from Stuttgart in October 1965. The strange coincidence is that he lives literally 210 meters from my house and has been that close since I moved there in 2014.