Mercedes-Benz opens world's biggest classic car workshop in Fellbach

Ten vehicle lifts, each fitted with two work stations, now stand in a workshop on the edge of Stuttgart that takes in nothing newer than a car already 15 years out of production. Mercedes-Benz opened this expanded Classic Center in Fellbach in mid-October 2026, calling it, in its own words, the largest restoration, servicing and repair business in the world for classic Mercedes-Benz cars.

The numbers behind that claim are specific. The site has grown to 18,000 square metres, with about 10,000 square metres of that now workshop space, more than double what stood there before the rebuild. Around 70 people work across the expanded site, 60 of them specialists in the workshops, covering everything from bodywork and paint to upholstery and electronics, Mercedes-Benz Heritage said in a release carried by the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. New additions include a paint booth, an engine test bench and metalworking tools such as an English wheel, the kind of equipment a 300 SL Gullwing or an early Pagoda SL needs once its original body panels are gone.

No comparable Mercedes-Benz address exists in India. The company runs only two Classic Centers in the world, this one in Fellbach, open since 18 May 1993, and a second in Irvine, California, opened in June 2006, according to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center's own history. Indian owners of pre-1990s Mercedes cars, a 300 SL replica here, a round-nosed W123 sedan there, already route restoration and original parts enquiries through one of these two addresses because there is no local one. A bigger Fellbach means a deeper parts catalogue and more hands to answer those enquiries, even when the car itself never leaves India.

Mercedes-Benz Heritage's chief executive, Marcus Breitschwerdt, called the expansion "a milestone for Mercedes-Benz Heritage" in the company's release, adding that the range of services on offer "demonstrates what our brand stands for: the utmost quality, the preservation of our history and a view to the future." At the opening, the company gave its Heritage Lifetime Achievement Award to Sandra Button, the long-time chairwoman of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, a nod to how closely the workshop's fortunes are tied to the concours circuit where restored Mercedes-Benz cars are judged and sold.

The expansion also closes out a three-year reorganisation. Since 2023, Mercedes-Benz Heritage GmbH has pulled the museum, the vehicle collection, parts supply, vehicle trading and the brand's clubs under one roof, with Fellbach as its workshop floor. The next car to roll onto one of those ten lifts could be a 300 SL. It could just as easily be an early S-Class that an owner somewhere, including in India, is only now starting to call a classic.

Sources

• Mercedes-Benz Doubles Down on Its Heritage with Expanded Classic Center
• A new chapter begins: Mercedes-Benz opens extensively expanded Classic Center in Fellbach
• Mercedes-Benz Classic Center
• Mercedes Embraces Classic Cars, Opens Its Biggest Repair Shop In The World