Called Magna-Steyr today, the company’s history is a latticework of mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs. It traces its roots to a rifle factory and sawmill both founded in Steyr, Austria, in 1864. It began making bicycles in 1894 and built its first car in 1918. It became known as Steyr-Werke in 1926 and merged with Austro-Daimler-Puchwerke in 1934 to become Steyr-Daimler-Puch.

Steyr-Daimler-Puch grew into an industrial empire that designed and manufactured a dizzying variety of products including weapons, bicycles, mopeds, trucks, tractors, buses, automotive components and, of course, cars. It divested most of these businesses in the late 1980s and early 1990s and it merged with Canada’s Magna in 2001 to become a global leader in contract-manufacturing: making other companies' cars to order.

Its story is rarely told. Today, Magna-Steyr is best known as the company that has built the Mercedes-Benz G-Class for several decades. This key, high-profile car is the tip of the iceberg; the rest of it is stashed away in its official museum, now officially called the Johann Puch Museum, and it has some very interesting cars on show - let's take a look: