I Drove the World's First Car

• What's new: Not this! The Benz Patent Motorwagen is 140 years old.
• Why it matters: The Motorwagen is widely regarded as the world's first production vehicle, patented by Karl Benz in 1886.
• Edmunds says: This three-wheeled antique is surprisingly easy (and fun!) to drive.

It's 7:30 a.m. on a brisk Friday morning at a hotel in northern Germany, and I'm told we can't drive too close to the side of the building, for fear of this antique cacophony waking the guests. I'm eager to set off on a test drive, but I decide to let the Motorwagen idle a bit so I can pore over this car's exquisite details. I love the huge rear wheels with their long, intertwining spokes, and the thin rubber bands that pull duty as "tires." The leather belt that connects the flywheel to the axle is serious stuff. I dig the brass-colored fuel canister, and the clear glass container that shows the engine's oil. The elegant curves of the metal bodywork are a testament to coachbuilding, and the leather seat looks as comfy as a vintage couch, the black upholstery taking on a dark green hue in the morning sun.

Scheibner gives me a quick rundown of the controls. The tall metal bar to the left of the driver is what controls acceleration and braking. The little joystick in the middle is how you steer. There's a small metal step so you can hoist yourself up onto the wood-plank passenger area. And, do be careful, the armrests alongside the bench seat are situated low, so if you turn too sharply, you can, you know, fall out. Seat belts? What seat belts?

The 954-cc engine makes 0.75 horsepower (not even one full horse!), giving the Motorwagen a blistering top speed of about 10 mph. But on a rickety old three-wheeler — "rickety" is a term of endearment in this case — even 5 mph feels like a thrill. You're fully exposed to the outside world with only the teensiest, tiniest of contact patches connecting the Motorwagen to the road.

I carefully push the drive lever forward and the Motorwagen slowly picks up speed. The seat itself is comfy but the ride is predictably rough, though the fact that I'm driving along a path made of concrete blocks doesn't really help. Before I know it, I'm cruising along like a Gilded Age industrial tycoon, carefully using the center-mounted lever to point the front wheel where I want it to go. Pulling the drive lever back towards me drops the engine's revs, which slows the car down. I wouldn't call it "braking" by modern standards, but I'm at least able to stop the Motorwagen in my intended spot without crashing into a row of brand-new S-Classes that Mercedes has lined up for test drives.

The thrill of driving the Benz Patent Motorwagen is found in its singularity. Nothing else moves like this. Nothing. I also sort of love the inherent sense of danger involved with operating one of these things. Hit a divot or bump the wrong way and the car will just topple over. You can burn yourself on the exposed mechanicals or sprain your wrist while giving the flywheel a crank.

I cannot imagine driving one of these things for a long distance, let alone the 112-mile round trip that Bertha Benz completed with her two kids in 1888. But it's also an experience I'll never forget. Senior vehicle test editor Reese Counts called the Benz Motorwagen the best car he drove in 2022. I'm not sure I'd personally call it my "best," but "most interesting" or "most perilous," maybe. Either way, it's something I'll never forget.