Return To The Marque

From BMW to Lamborghini, leading marques provide in-house services to preserve their iconic models.

- Viju Mathew

Imagine that when Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures) sold at auction for US$90.3 million in 2018, the buyer also received the phone number of its revered painter, David Hockney, in case the time came for a touch-up. After all, what better way to maintain the canvas’s pristine condition while still preserving its authenticity? Although exceedingly rare in the world of fine art, this concept is very real in the sphere of collectible automobiles, where vehicles can sell for eight-figures. It’s no wonder that premier automakers are increasingly offering in-house restoration instead of abdicating responsibility to a third party to tinker with their automotive DNA.

Mercedes-Benz (www.mercedes-benz.com) was an early adopter, opening its Classic Center in Germany in 1993 and a stateside version in 2006. “We define ‘classic’ as a car that is 15 years past the end of the model’s production. That’s where we pick it up and take over,” says Mike Kunz, who leads the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California. Unlike some independent shops that are happy to modernize or personalize a classic, “we don’t make the car any better than it was and don’t pretend to know more than the incredible engineers that built them. If we’ve done our job right, it looks like we never did it at all.”