The 2003 Mercedes F500 Mind was an interesting concept in every respect. From the start, the model also raises questions with today’s eyes, even though the world is different through the lens of the times. At that time, instead of SUVs, family minivans were manufactured, which save a lot of space as well as high practicality. And what do you need in a luxury car? Comfort, a sense of space and plenty of room for a lot of tools, so it also turned out that the F500 was a bit flat.
The model became a hybrid of the Mercedes R-Class and Renault Felsates, and of course the first model was still far from ready for the roads at the time, it only started in 2006. If you stare hard, you can see a Tesla SUV from the rearview mirror, but that’s just an explanation. truly.
Anyway, it wasn’t as flashy as a concept car, as Mercedes was able to tow with many other cars at the time, so it could have come true. In essence, it only happened in parts.
The F500 Mind has lined up such a technical arsenal, which even today is often a privilege of the upper class and has not yet been able to get into the cheaper classes. Of course, there were a lot of rags here, because the rear doors could open in two ways.
Either forward, as in normal cars, or as a self-closing door, as in Rolls Royces. They obviously did not use column B for this, even though there is only one column in the middle. A piece of lateral strut replaces the two smaller B-pillars, which here are part of the doors that open up to 90 degrees in the rear.
Well, we got in through the tricky doors, got into the car, and what awaits you is not every day here either. So today, we’d rate it as excellent, with larger screens at best, but if you look closely, this design also appears on Mercedes’ current S and C-Class.
Even starting with the car would have been strange, because instead of pedals, Mercedes installed pressure-sensitive surfaces, supported by a small number of sensors, because, according to them, they saved a lot of inches inside.
Nowadays, it’s almost strange that there’s no digital instrument cluster in a new car, but in the F500 Mind it looked horribly modern, just like the rectangular multi-button steering wheel. The center screen wasn’t full of buttons either, everything could be controlled from a central panel, which is a laptop-like touch panel. This was a technology that came back to Mercedes later.
According to plans, the car was approximately the size of an E-class (5.09 m in length, but 2.97 m in wheelbase), yet it seats only three. The person sitting in the right back can enjoy the most luxury, as he can put a small desk in the car.
There are not only charging ports and convenient functions, but also an adjustable table for a laptop or a separate table for notes. The view that can be seen from two directions also tops it all off, which doesn’t make much sense in this form, but Mercedes has shown that it can be done.
The driver was not left alone either, modern driving support systems helped him move the car. For example, it made driving easier with a night vision camera, which is still a brain teasing technique today, but not then. Of course, this system appeared in the W221 S-Class two years later as an expensive addition.
The car’s infrared camera can view the road at a height of up to 150 meters and highlight even pedestrians in pitch darkness. But not only did the cameras help here, the center mirror of the car was also not traditional. Her role was captured by an active rear camera, similar to In a Range Rover 2022.
With many model cars, they don’t even care about the drive-by detail, since presentation is the priority, and most don’t go anywhere anyway. But Mercedes isn’t, they built a decent engine under the F500 Mind’s panels, a hybrid at that! Yes, in 2003, when Toyota Prius She also did not find her exact identity, but some manufacturers are already beginning to pay attention to this question.
That’s why the test car had a 250-hp 4.0-liter V8 diesel engine, aided by a 68-hp electric motor from a 300-volt battery. In principle, the system would have operated like the hybrids we know today, so it could be powered electrically (they wanted an urban start-up solution), using only the internal combustion engine, or even a combination of the two.
The drive also shows the level at which Mercedes has been able to envision the future with a single car. It was nearly 10 years ahead of anyone else at the time, but it wasn’t immediately used. Since then, they have been enjoying the technical innovations of the F500 Mind concept, perhaps only now using everything they dreamed of at the time. The only thing left is a two-way tailgate, but that’s really just part of the game.
