Ever wondered what testing procedures your car goes through before reaching the showrooms? Well, Mercedes has just given us a behind-the-scenes look at its amazing testing plant in Germany prior to the world premiere unveiling of the third generation M-Class.
Experts at the Stuttgart, Germany-based plant showed us different testing procedures that shake, prod, squeeze and shove the components of a new car in every possible direction for hours, days and weeks on end before passing the preliminary stages.
The axles are pummelled for more than a month and undergo thousands of kilometres under simulator conditions to test their agility, strength and effectiveness. It was explained that 3,000kms worth of testing at the centre is equivalent to 300,000kms of everyday driving.
Elsewhere, they are shaken, pushed and tested to the extreme in the centre and elsewhere too such as Namibia and the freezing Arctic.
Dr Joachim Schmidt, head of sales and marketing at Mercedes-Benz cars said: “We’ve burned rubber on the racetrack. We’ve burned our skin in the African desert sun. We’ve scratched knees and skid plates climbing rocks. And we nearly froze off various body parts in the Arctic. All to make sure that if you don’t like to compromise, you’ll love the M-Class.”
And all this to help produce the third generation Mercedes M-Class – which will be a premium vehicle in the SUV range offering top-of-the-class efficiency figures that will certainly take some beating.