Spanish authorities impound fleet of Mercedes E63 AMGs on media test drive

Sun, 10 Feb 2013

A group of American auto writers found themselves on the wrong side of the Spanish police recently while driving the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG through Catalonia. According to Motoramic, officers stopped around 18 writers, though not for disobeying any local traffic laws. Instead, the members of the group were detained for not being able to produce an international driver's license despite the fact that an IDL isn't a legal document, requires no test and simply states in several languages that the holder possess a valid US license. The writers were held on the side of the road before being moved to a parking lot for around two hours.

And what of their high-performance sedans? Police impounded six of the cars, each worth around $100,000. A representative from Mercedes-Benz eventually arrived to help free the writers, though Motoramic says the cars themselves remained in Spanish custody. Mercedes-Benz spokesperson Christian Bokich said, "No fines were paid, no charges were brought and no bribes were given."

By Zach Bowman