Watching a Mercedes-Benz C-Class Get Assembled Is an Eye-Opener

After we buy a new car, we're all excited about the purchase so we don't really think about the money. Then, we become so used to our vehicles that we begin to see them as a whole and not give any consideration to the myriad of features they have.

For instance, we see the dashboard with all of its buttons and think it's just that, a dashboard. In fact, it's a very complex assembly that required lots of individual parts, as well as someone putting them together. Not to mention somebody else who had to think of a way to do that.

We could go back even further to design or even research and development, but we won't. We don't feel we have to. Seeing how complicated it is to put a car together is enough to leave us in awe.

Watching this process (all 11 minutes of it) makes you realize just how important the production line is and why companies give it so much thought. If you've been paying attention to Elon Musk, he's been talking a lot about "the machines building the machines" and how they are pivotal to Tesla's ambitions to ramp up production to 500,000 units a year by 2018.

Unlike Tesla, Mercedes-Benz has a long history behind it, which also means plenty of time to perfect every aspect. Despite that, the assembly line is still populated by workers, each manning their stations, each knowing exactly what they need to do. It may not be wartime, but the line does not stop, so everybody has to be at their maximum game.

Or maybe they are at war - an economic one that, as it happens, Mercedes-Benz is actually winning. The Stuttgart-based company has become the world's best-selling premium brand this year, stealing the crown from its Bavarian neighbor, BMW, and the C-Class had a significant role to play.

The compact-sized sedan is built at Daimler's factory in Bremen, as well as some other locations around the world, but in smaller numbers. Watch as the car starts to catch shape from a simple frame all the way to the quality inspection. No words, no explanations, just pure industrial magic at play.