- Porsche shared a special tribute to Mercedes on Instagram.
- It highlighted shared roots, motorsport wins, and teamwork.
- BMW, Audi, and others also posted birthday tributes online.
On January 29, 1886, Karl Benz received a patent for the “Motorwagen,” an invention that would reshape the modern world and set the course for personal mobility as we know it. To mark the 140th anniversary of this milestone, Porsche set aside rivalry for a moment and posted a tribute to Mercedes-Benz on Instagram.
Porsche set aside the usual inter-brand banter and instead paid tribute to its shared Stuttgart heritage, joint motorsport triumphs, and engineering partnerships with Mercedes, creating a rare moment of mutual respect between the two marques.
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The message appeared in segments on Porsche’s official Instagram account, accompanied by images of Mercedes vehicles:
“Dear Mercedes Benz, we share more than passion, we share the visionary foundation of our pioneer, we share our hometown. We share the love for motorsports, we share the feeling of winning the greatest races. “We share the setbacks, we share the same friends.”
Porsche / Instagram
“We even share the legendary E 500” (which was developed and manufactured in collaboration with Porsche). But most importantly, we share the same belief: that cars are there to not only move our body, but also our hear. To 140 years of the automobile and many more shared moments.”
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Mercedes acknowledged the gesture in the comments, responding with a brief note: “Thanks for the kind words Porsche! Here‘s to a future of continued innovation, always striving for the best – in our own unique ways.”
How the Rest of the Industry Responded
Other automakers also took the opportunity to mark the occasion and tip their hats to Mercedes-Benz. Audi, Cadillac, Volvo, Xiaomi, Nio, XPeng, Geely, and Li Auto shared birthday messages, though some of those tributes appeared on Chinese social media platform Weibo rather than on Instagram or X, at least as of this writing.
BMW, one of Mercedes’ longest-standing rivals, didn’t sit it out either. True to form, their post came with a wink. “Luckily, Carl Benz invented the automobile, so we could invent driving pleasure,” they wrote, pairing the caption with a photo of a smiling Benz. The final slide in their Instagram carousel included a direct birthday wish alongside an image of the BMW iX3, their first Neue Klasse product.