500

Mercedes-Benz · on record 1994 to 2025

The Mercedes Benz 500 belongs to an earlier naming era, when model numbers often described engine size, market position or a factory series rather than a modern family name. Mercedes used simple engine capacity based numeric badges across many saloon, coupe and roadster generations, so this isolated number can cover more than one body family and era. A surviving 500 is now chiefly a historic vehicle, sustained by restoration, club knowledge and owners prepared to maintain machinery far beyond its original everyday life.

DECLINING

Red List classification, from population, five year trajectory and survival against peak. Reviewed each census.

1,279 licensed vehicles
2025 census

12.8% of the peak fleet remains licensed PEAK PREDATES RECORDS

2,869

declared SORN

total surviving

peak 10,015 in 1994 · −49 vehicles a year, five year trend

Population history

Licensed and SORN vehicles at each census. The filters below apply to the family population, MOT and registration figures. They do not alter the generation history above.

Licensed SORN Latest census observation SOURCE DVLA VEH0120 / VEH0220

At the average decline recorded over the latest five years, the licensed fleet would reach zero around 2051.

Illustrative projection only; vehicle populations rarely decline linearly. Late fleets typically flatten as surviving examples enter preservation.

Inside the surviving fleet

AutoCensus parses every DVLA variant description, so the fleet can be read by fuel and specification rather than as one number.

First registrations by year

When surviving examples first joined the British fleet.

Recent UK first registrations

This family is no longer sold new. These figures are imports and historic vehicles joining the British register for the first time.

MOT reliability

DVSA test results for this family, 2005 to 2025.

Pass rate by year

Failure reason	Failures	Share of all tests
The grooves of the tread pattern are not at least 1.6mm throughout a continuous band comprising the central three-quarters of the breadth of tread, and round the entire outer circumference of the tyre	8	3.7%
A direction indicator shows light of an incorrect colour	6	2.8%
A brake lining or pad insecure or less than 1.5mm thick at any point	5	2.3%
Electrical wiring insulation slightly damaged or deteriorated	5	2.3%
Amalgamation of failures for all headlamp testers	5	2.3%
Excessive play in a ball joint	4	1.9%
A rear registration plate lamp with any lamp not working	4	1.9%
Excessive play in a ball joint	3	1.4%

Counted across every recorded test, 2005 to 2025. Advisories are excluded.

Where the 500 remains

Based on MOT test locations, 2025. Test location is a proxy: a vehicle is counted where it was last tested, not where it is kept.

Postcode area	Vehicles tested	Pass rate
B	1	100%
E	1	100%

How this record was calculated

LATEST CENSUS2025

POPULATION SOURCEDVLA VEH0220 annual

HISTORY SOURCEDVLA VEH0120 GB · to 2013

MOT SOURCEDVSA results · to 2025

FAMILY DEFINITIONMERCEDES 500

PROCESSED20 Sep 2026

Full methodology

Population history combines DVLA VEH0120 Q4 census observations through 2013 with the annual VEH0220 census from 2014 onward. Figures before 2014 cover Great Britain only. Historical VEH0120 is used only when its overlapping UK observations reconcile to the current canonical family definition. Vehicles are grouped into this family using the DVLA GenModel together with durable routing rules for known inconsistencies.

Variant figures are parsed from raw DVLA model descriptions and the original string is always retained. Configuration is only assigned where the model description explicitly identifies it; a blank configuration is not treated as a two door Wrangler. Blank transmission fields are shown as manual because DVLA records the field for automatic vehicles.

MOT figures count tests, not vehicles, and geographic figures count each vehicle at its most recent test location. The decline projection is a straight line fitted to the latest five years and is illustrative only.

500