Claim: Photographs show a diamond-covered Mercedes-Benz automobile.
Example:[Collected via e-mail, May 2008]
THE CAR COSTS $4.8 MILLION
AND IF YOU WANT TO TOUCH IT, YOU HAVE TO PAY $1000.
IT BELONGS TO PRINCE AL WALEED FROM SAUDI ARABIA.
Remember this when gasoline hits $5.00 a gallon.
You paid for this one.
Origins: Whenever
gasoline prices rise significantly, we see an increase in e-mailed photographs purportedly documenting the extravagances of Middle Eastern sheiks flush with petro-dollars and nothing better to spend them on than pointless opulence. Usually, though, the extent of the lavishness depicted in the photographs is greatly exaggerated (as in the earlier Silver Audi example), and these pictures of a "Diamond Mercedes" are another case in point.
Garson USA produces a line of luxury automotive products, including crystal highlight accessories for Mercedes-Benz automobiles and other luxury cars. As explained on the opening page of Garson's U.S. web site, the automobile pictured above is not a Saudi prince's diamond-encrusted Mercedes worth $4.8 million (the cost of the diamonds needed to fully cover a car of that size would be much more than $4.8 million) but rather a crystal-encrustedSL 600 worth about $1 million that was exhibited as part of DUB Magazine's Custom Auto Show & Concert:
Hot on DUB Magazine's Custom Auto Show & Concert tour is this million dollar car, Garson / D.A.D's crystal-encrusted Mercedes-Benz SL 600.300,000 Swarovski crystals are attached to the exterior of the body while it sits on 20" rims.
The crystal Mercedes will be exhibited again at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2008.
A short video clip of this car as exhibited at another auto show can be seen here:
