Recentely, I visited Mercedes-Benz' Classic Center in Irvine, California, during a tour organised by the US State Department for the Foreign Press. As its manager, Mike Kunz, explained in the video, the 28,000-square-foot "garage" is both a museum, with dozens of vintage cars, and a dealership, with an important restoration workshop, providing parts for all the cars the company made, starting with the Benz Motorwagen in 1886!
"No matter how old the vehicule is, we will get parts for it... We will also buy and sell vintage cars, for our collection or our customers.", said Mike Kunz.
Mercedes-Benz' decision to build in Irvine a replica of the original Classic Center in Stuttgart is no surprise:
- the US is the largest market for Mercedes-Benz after Germany with 550,000 classic Benz on the roads in the US;
- 72% of Mercedes-Benz sold after the war are still on the road;
- and Southern California is where most of the classic Benz are.
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