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Roll like His Airness in this Mercedes SLR McLaren previously owned by Michael Jordan

Often called the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan also has an interest in fast machines, as evidenced by the recent announcement that he would be establishing a NASCAR team, 23XI Racing, together with Denny Hamlin and featuring Bubba Wallace behind the wheel. It's hardly surprising, then, that he would also be an owner of multiple supercars, many of which could be seen in the ESPN documentary The Last Dance. One of Jordan's previous supercars, this 2007 Mercedes SLR McLaren, is now up for sale on eBay Motors. Besides its celebrity provenance, this Mercedes SLR McLaren is special for another reason: It's the special 722 Edition, built to commemorate the 1955 Mercedes-Benz win at the Mille Miglia. That winning Mercedes-Benz 300SLR racer, piloted by Sir Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson, was car #722 (so designated because of its 7:22 a.m. start time). The SLR McLaren 722 Edition features a 650-horsepower supercharged 5.5-liter V8 engine and is able to accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds. Top speed is 209 mph. Good thing the front splitter and rear diffuser are modified for increased downforce at high speeds. The ride height also is lowered and the suspension stiffened compared to the regular car, and larger brake rotors are fitted. The interior brings leather and Alcantara upholstery along with gloss-finished carbon fiber trim. Special black wheels and subtle red "722" badges complete the picture. This car has 1,038 miles on the clock, so it must not have been in heavy rotation with Jordan's many other rides. At this writing, the car has a bid of $35,100 with the reserve not met. We'd guess bidding has a way to go before someone has a realistic chance of driving this baby home, since the Buy-It-Now price is $695,750. Featured Gallery Mercedes SLR McLaren ex-Michael Jordan Auto News Celebrities McLaren Mercedes-Benz Auctions Coupe Supercars

Tesla says Model 3 is best-selling midsize premium sedan in America

Auto sales figures are sort of fuzzy numbers, no matter how you slice them and no matter which manufacturer you're talking about. Unless you're specifically tracking vehicle registrations, automakers generally self-report the figures. So, you have to trust that they aren't doing anything too tricky. Plus, not every sale is equal, as some are logged as dealership loaners or demo models, some go to fleets (like to a rental car agency), and still others are, of course, bought by traditional customers looking for a new daily driver. With that preamble out of the way, when we saw a tweet from Tesla claiming that the all-electric Model 3 is the best-selling midsize premium sedan in America, our interest was piqued. According to Tesla, market share of the Model 3 has just surpassed the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which had up until now led the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, and Lexus IS as the best-selling sedan in its class. Note that the graph from Tesla below is, we think, specific to four-door models. So, is it true? Judging by the numbers we can find, including some from Bloomberg, which has a running chart to track Model 3 registrations, the answer is... probably. We don't know exactly how many Model 3 sedans Tesla is currently cranking out, but Bloomberg estimates production at about 2,560 units per week, and total sales for 2018 at 34,414. We know the number is increasing regularly, though, and Elon Musk has said most recently production sits around 500 units per day, which, on a seven-day cycle, would be 3,500 per week. We looked up Mercedes' sales figures for the month of May, 2018, and found that the German brand sold 5,419 C-Class models last month, for a total of 23,917 for the year (incidentally, that's down more than 30 percent from the year prior). While the bulk of those sales would surely be made up of sedans, it would also include a small percentage of coupes. Either way, it's likely that Tesla is currently producing and selling more Model 3s than Mercedes is C-Classes. Now, it's also worth considering if the C-Class is the only vehicle from Mercedes that directly competes with the Model 3. We'd guess customers may also cross-shop the CLA sedan with the Tesla, and if that's the case, you might decide it's worth adding in Mercedes' 2,527 CLA-Class sales last month and 9,622 so far for the year. The same argument could be made for certain versions of the BMW 2 and 4 Series.

Mercedes-Benz starts internship program for refugees

Mercedes-Benz has started a new internship program for refugees in Germany, which offers participants work training and German language lessons over the course of fourteen weeks. Its aim is to help refugees and asylum seekers integrate into the German workforce, but not necessarily at the automaker. The "bridge intern" program is a joint effort between Daimler and the German government's Federal Employment Agency. It starts each day on the early shift at 6:00 a.m. with three and a half hours of work in areas like axle production and logistics. That's followed by another three and a half hours of language courses where they learn to converse in German in 10-person groups, which includes help with writing letters for job applications and other critical employment skills. Germany has been flooded recently with refugees and asylum seekers. Many of them have been coming in from the war zone in Syria. However the program also welcomes refugees from other Central Asian and African countries, including Afghanistan, Eritrea, Gambia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. The program is open to participants between the ages of 20 and 51. "The best way for people to integrate is at the workplace," said Michael Brecht, chairman of Daimler's General Works Council. "Doing things together creates understanding for one another. That is why we are delighted that many colleagues have expressed a willingness to mentor the 'bridge interns'." In the statement below, Brecht stresses that the internship participants "are not in competition with temporary agency workers or our core workforce. This program does not put anybody at a disadvantage." The first six weeks of the program are financed by the Federal Employment Agency, but after that, Daimler foots the bull for another eight weeks, paying the interns the standard minimum wage. The first such program has already started at the Unterurkheim plant in Stuttgart, and is set to be followed by other similar programs at additional locations. 40 refugees start 'bridge internships' at Daimler Stuttgart, Nov 09, 2015 - Participants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Gambia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria - Fourteen-week internship in cooperation with the German Federal Employment Agency - Daimler qualifies refugees for the German labor market - Internships for several hundred more refugees are planned at other company locations Forty refugees and asylum seekers have started a so-called 'bridge internship' at Daimler.