Earlier this year, BMW celebrated its 100th birthday and in response Mercedes, which can officially claim to have invented the motor car itself, ran a newspaper advert stating: “Thanks for 100 years of competition”.
In the past century, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have been responsible for developing and introducing some of the most important automotive inventions the world has seen, from diesel engines to driverless cars and everything in between.
Click through the timeline below to explore the history of both companies, their rivalry and some of the most important inventions to come from each manufacturer:
