15 Mercedes-Benz Cars Every Enthusiast Should Know About

Mercedes-Benz 300SD

Mercedes-Benz has always been a leader in automotive innovation, holding patents for numerous groundbreaking technologies. Many of its cars set trends that other manufacturers later followed.

Though Mercedes had been making diesel cars since the 1930s, the 1978 300SD was the first vehicle from any automaker to feature a turbocharged diesel engine, according to AutoWeek. Diesel cars before this were often known for one thing: being painfully slow. But the addition of a turbocharger gave the 300SD's engine enough power to offer respectable performance---something that was previously unheard of for diesel cars, as noted by MotorTrend.

The 5-cylinder turbodiesel engine in the 300SD produced about 120 horsepower, which might sound low by today's standards, but keep in mind, in the late 1970s, even sports cars struggled to break 200 horsepower. Aside from the engine, the 300SD embodied the qualities Mercedes-Benz was known for---legendary reliability and top-notch build quality. Well-maintained examples of this model are famous for lasting hundreds of thousands of miles. In fact, AutoBlog found a 1980 300SD in a junkyard that had run over 300,000 miles, and that's probably on the low side. Today, the 300SD is still celebrated as the car that will outlast us all.