Mercedes-Benz parent company hasn't been the most successful when it comes to buying or launching other car companies. It owned the Chrysler group for a while, but that failed. It tried re-launching Maybach as a premium marque in 1997, but ended up closing it last year. But when it comes to commercial vehicles, it's a giant. It builds trucks and busses under the Freightliner, Mitsubishi Fuso, Thomas Built and Sterling brands, to name just a few. And in 1995, it bought Setra a bus company that had been around since the 1950s.

At the Geneva Motor Show in 1955, Setra introducing what Daimler claims was "the world's first compact coach" (although the Volkswagen Microbus had actually been introduced five years prior). Now Daimler and Setra are revisiting the Setra S 6 by displaying five classic examples (four from individual owners and one from Daimler's own archives) at the Retro Classics show in Stuttgart next month. The Setra S 6 introduced a new type of self-supporting frame to the market, and was powered by a Henschel four-cylinder diesel engine that produced just 90 horsepower. Just 1,172 examples were made before production ended in 1963 - precisely 50 years ago.