In few inquire and know what becomes of concept cars after they are showcased to the public, and very often, it is not a glorious fate. For example, the Mercedes MBUX Seat Exhibit in 2020 was recently found in a scrapyard in Atlanta, United States.
It’s a pity, both because these prototypes are often much more interesting than production cars, as they can take more risks, and because they require thousands of investments and hours of work that are not always rewarded.
The fate of concept cars is not uniform. Many of them are preserved in museums, but in many other cases, they are either demolished or lost.
Not long ago, for instance, two Nissan concept cars were found in a landfill in Tennessee. Not a glorious end, and not a good corporate image in terms of environmental respect and resource reuse capabilities.
In the case of this Mercedes, it is a kind of pod presented in 2020 as a preview of the new interior layout of the German brand’s flagships, the S-Class and the EQS that arrived shortly after. But taken out of context, it almost looks like a futuristic car as imagined in the 1980s, similar to those pods from anime like Dragon Ball or even American comics from a few decades earlier.
From the photos that have surfaced, however, it doesn’t seem to be in bad shape and may still hold value for a collector. Certainly, as a recent concept, it is more surprising on the inside for the technology employed, which still represents the best of what Mercedes can offer today.
For this reason, it could also transform into one of the most complex and expensive simulators in the world, similar to those used by the most passionate and attentive sim-racers. In the end, the concept is not so different from the setups made by Brembo, Cupra, or Lamborghini specifically for virtual pilots
