Surprise! Pope Benedict's New Popemobile Is A Mercedes-Benz Again
Exciting news for fans of Pope Benedict XVI: His Holiness has a new set of wheels, and — shockingly! — it is a Mercedes-Benz SUV yet again. I guess he didn't take too kindly to my suggestion of an '86 Mitsubishi Starion Popemobile.
According to this report in The Detroit News, Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche personally delivered the new, customized M-Class SUV to the Vatican yesterday.
Like its predecessors, this Popemobile features a bulletproof glass dome and a throne with the Pope's regalia on it. Mercedes say they built the dome a little bigger on this latest M-Class to make him more visible to crowds. Note the LED lights up front, which are getting old really fast on just about every car if you ask me.
The papacy has long had a tase for Benzes — the last few Popemobiles have been M or G-Class SUVs like this one. No word on what happened to the electric Renault Kangoo Popemobile that J-Torch wrote about a few months ago. Maybe it ran out of juice and is stuck by the side of the road somewhere.