Mercedes-Benz Classic Center Awards Annual Scholarship to McPherson College Auto Restoration Student

Classic Vehicle Preservation Internships also Announced

IRVINE, Calif., June 7 -- Continuing its core commitment to craftsmanship, originality and classic automobile preservation, the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center at Irvine, CA has awarded its annual one-year scholarship for the McPherson College Automotive Restoration Technology Program to James V. Knight. The scholarship was created in 2003 to encourage enthusiasm for classic car preservation and restoration among young people and to assist students to reach their educational goals.

McPherson College, located in McPherson, Kansas, offers the only four-year bachelor's program for automotive restoration technology in the U.S. Knight, a fourth-year student from Ruskin, Nebraska, accepted the scholarship at the Automotive Restoration Technology Program's award ceremony held on May 6, 2006, at the McPherson College campus.

Knight was further awarded a student internship for six months at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach, Germany. He is the seventh McPherson undergraduate student to intern in Germany under a partnership between the Classic Center at Irvine and the original Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach. The Classic Center in Fellbach has developed many years of expertise in preserving and restoring Mercedes-Benz vehicles, especially exceptional pre-war models, and the internship program helps to share this invaluable experience with the McPherson students.

Concurrently, Michael Kunz, manager of the Classic Center, also announced the creation of a three-month summer internship at its Irvine location for Automotive Restoration Technology Program students. Brian Schippert is the recipient of this internship which will provide practical working experience on Mercedes-Benz vintage vehicles during the summer school break.

Mercedes-Benz Helped Expand Auto Restoration Curriculum

Mercedes-Benz USA has been involved with McPherson College since 2003 when a part of a $100,000 grant from the company's super-luxury sister brand Maybach -- represented at this year's awards ceremony by the newest Maybach model, the 57 S -- provided funding to broaden the Automotive Restoration Technology Program from a two-year Associate of Arts degree into a four-year Bachelor of Science degree. The program offers four automotive restoration technology majors: business, communications, history and art.

Students in the Automotive Restoration Technology Program have restored more than 40 classic and antique automobiles in the program's 30-year history. Several of the restored cars have won awards from the Antique Automobile Club of America. A current student project is refurbishing one of the 1886 Benz three-wheeler replicas built by apprentices at Daimler-Benz in Germany in 1986 for the 100th anniversary of the automobile. The first Benz three-wheeler ushered in the automotive age as the first self-propelled internal combustion vehicle 120 years ago.

About the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center

The Classic Center (http://www.mbusa.com/classic) located in Irvine, CA, the first and only manufacturer-backed classic automotive center of its kind in the U.S., offers a full compliment of services including retail sales, restoration and vehicle-search assistance for Mercedes-Benz models twenty years out of production. It can be reached at 949-598-4850. The Classic Center also handles parts sales for vintage Mercedes-Benz via its toll-free number -- 1-866-MB CLASSIC (1-866-622-5277).

About Mercedes-Benz USA

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), headquartered in Montvale, NJ, is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz and Maybach products in the United States. In 2005, MBUSA achieved an all-time sales record of 224,421 new vehicles, setting the highest sales volume ever in its history and achieving 12 consecutive years of sales growth. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found at http://www.mbusa.com/ and http://www.maybachusa.com/.