by Harvey Williams
Over the years Mercedes have certainly had a great deal more successes than failures. Their cars so impressively designed are a shining example of how a quality car should engineered, but has it always been this way? Well certainly it has not always been easy for Mercedes; they have had to face many challenges throughout the years, many of which were completely out of their control. And some perhaps not; for example their more recent problems with build quality, which many believe were completely of Mercedes own making. Confidence in Mercedes dropped in the late 1990’s when it became evident that both mechanical and electronic faults were on the increase. Contract hire and leasing brokers became worried about recommending Mercedes Benz to clients. The M class received the most criticism from motoring journalists.
During 2003 Which Magazine carried out a survey and downgraded Mercedes Benz by two categories; they went from being classed as best for reliability, to average. Although in the report, The Consumer Association criticised all the German Manufacturers, saying that they had all declined in recent years. Perhaps what was most surprising is that it emerged that the manufacturer motorists complained most about was Volkswagen.
Some feel that when the BBC’s Top Gear programme gets a bee in its bonnet about a particular manufacturer, that they can go too far in their critisism. When they placed the Mercedes M Class last out of 142 cars surveyed, it did appear to be a little harsh but to be fair it wasn’t that far out of line with what others were saying about the car. In any event Mercedes realised that things had to change and they have indeed changed; Mercedes Benz have made great strides in restoring their good name.
Karl Benz was based in Mannheim when he invented what has become known as the world’s first automobile, it was patented in 1886. Benz called it the Benz Patent Motorwagen. It had three wheels which were hardly wider than those of today’s bicycle wheels, the occupants were completely exposed to the elements and subjected to a very bumpy ride. In those days lights to enable the driver to see and be seen, hadn’t been thought of.
In the meantime a gentleman by the name of Gottleib Daimler along with William Maybach were also busy inventing a car powered by an internal combustion engine. The vehicle was called the Daimler Riding car. The engine had an upright cylinder from which it derived its name the Grandfather Clock. Daimler called his vehicle a car but it was in fact a motorcycle, the worlds first. With its one cylinder, its speed at full throttle was 13 Kilometres an hour. Neither Benz or Daimler knew of the other’s work, even although they were only working about 100 Kilometres from each other.
When Daimler and Maybach completed their vehicle that they called the motorised carriage in 1886, they again used the Grandfather Clock engine. They had added 5 Kilometres per hour, the top speed was 18 Kilometres per hour. This vehicle had four wheels, which made it the worlds first four wheel car. The so called Wire Wheel Car that was produced by Daimler and shown at an exhibition in Paris in 1889, caused quite a stir. Seeing this vehicle on show at the exhibition is believed to encouraged the French to start manufacturing their own vehicles.
In 1890’s Karl Benz was building two, three and four seater vehicles but now with four wheels. He had developed the steering system so that the two front wheels could turn on a different radius, making the car much more stable.
The pace of development was fast in 1894 Benz introduced the Benz Motor Velocipide, it was a two seater vehicle with a top speed of about 20 kilometres per hour. It was the first car to be produced in any serious volumes he sold 1200. Benz then produced a motorized bus, it was a lovely looking vehicle but not terribly succesful; a combination of poor road conditions and its very narrow wheels made it farly impracticle.
A two cylinder belt driven car was brought out by Daimler in 1896. The two cylinders didn’t help much with it’s top speed, which was 18 mph. The world’s first truck was produced byDaimler, it was a flat bed truck. The fact that it was only capable of 11 Kilometres per hour, didn’t stop it being very popular, they were used mainly for deliveries, even Britain imported some of these vehicles. Daimler launced a new goods vehicle, it could transport loads of 500 Kilograms. It was similar in appearance to one of the covered, dome shaped, horse drawn wagons from the days of the wild west.
In 1899 Benz launched what was known as the Dos a Dos car where two passengers sat facing forward and two facing back, the car had an impressive speed of over 35 kilometres per hour.
William Maybach took control of the company when Daimler died in 1990. A gentleman by the name of Emil Jellinek encouraged Maybach to make changes. Jelinek was succesful both in motor racing and in business and he felt that Maybach needed to be building cars that were more modern in appearance and faster. He also persuaded Maybach to adopt the name Mercedes, after his daughter.
A number of more modern and faster car were produced by Daimler, in the early 1900’s. There was the 40 horsepower Mercedes Simplex that suceeded the 35 horsepower model. It was a single seater car with a top speed of 80 Kilometres per hour by now the car had 4 cylinders. One of these models is believed to be the oldest Mercedes still in existence.
The 18 horsepower Double Phaeton was launched by Benz in 1905,then in 1907 the six cylinder 75 hp Double Phaeton. Its top speed exceeded 94 kilometres per hour, very fast for its day. By now Benz was enjoying success in motor racing, as were Mercedes.
When the First World War started, car production ceased and the factories started producing materials and milatry vehicles, for the war effort. This was also the case in Britain. When the war ended, the German economy was all but destroyed;. Inflation was virtually out of control and there was a severe shortage of fuel, these were very difficult times for Germany. Cars became very expensive to buy; a luxury tax had been imposed on cars and very few people could afford to buy a new car. Nowadays motorists in the UK can aquire a new Mercedes on contract hire, for a monthly payment of around 300, how things have changed.
Benz’s financial position had been seriously weakened; it is believed that Daimler made an approach to Benz, with a proposal of merging but it did not proceed. By 1924 both companies were suffering financially and an agreement was signed and the companies were finally merged in 1926.
After the war Mercedes launched a sports car, it had two seats and a supercharged engine, the top speed was impressive at over 108kph. In 1927 Mercedes Benz then produced a touring car; they called it the Model S, the Model S was even faster at 160 kph. At the time it was hard to imagine that greater speeds could be achieved but one year later the SSK Sports was launched. It seems strange that it was specifically produced for hill climb racing, because one would have thought that that was quite a limited market. It had an extraordinary top speed approaching 200 kph.
In 1934 Mercedes Benz brought out the 500K. It was only for the very rich, with a price tag of 28,000 Marks. It wasn’t as fast as the SSK but could still achieve a very respectable 160 kph. It was a beautifully designed car; long and elegant with a tremendous amount of style.
The 540K was introduced out as the successor to the 500. It looked very similar but was faster at around 170 kph. Mercedes also launched the Mercedes Benz 770 a luxurious limousine in which many of Germany’s top industrialists would be chauffeured. The numbers of each model that were produced was low in those days; only around 120 of this model were manufactured and even in the case of the 540K, less than 120 were made.
It was claimed that during the Second Word War Mercedes used prisoners of war and forced labour to work in their factories. All German motor manufacturers were required to help in the German war effort, as indeed were the British carmakers. The German motor manufacturing plants were prime targets for the allies, as of course were our car manufacturers for the Germans. Both were producing military vehicles. There was virtually nothing left of Mercedes at the end of the war, their factories and machinery had been destroyed and there were virtually no raw materials, with which to work. In spite of all this Mercedes still managed to start producing cars again in 1948. They launched the 300 saloon in 1951 and sold more than 4500 of this model. The 300S convertible was also launched; things were improving for Mercedes.
The 1950’s saw the launch of the famous Gull-Wing 2 seater hardtop, which took the motoring world by storm. Its distinctive Gull-Wing doors opened up into the roof. With the doors open they did look remarkably like a gulls wings, the design was far ahead of its time. Many were sold in America although it really was very expensive, believed to have cost around $10,000 at the time. Nevertheless a very good investment; a 1955 model was sold at auction in Sydney Australia in 2006 for $777,240 Australian Dollars, $720,000 usd. The Gull-Wing was succeeded in 1957 by the 300SL an open sports car also very much in demand in America. It was very fast with a top speed of just under 250 Kilometres per hour.
As far back as 1960 Mercedes were testing vehicles and transmitting the data to a specially adapted vehicle. It may seem strange in the current high tech world of today but the data was transmitted by way of a very long cable running from the test car to the other vehicle, which would drive behind it, hopefully keeping up.
The first sports car to have a crumple free zone was launched by Mercedes in 1963, the 230 SL. It was slower than some of their earlier sports cars, under 200 kph. The car’s lack of speed, certainly didn’t affect sale, nearly 20,000 were sold. Mercedes then started producing cars with anti-lock brakes in 1978. They were also the first manufacturer to introduce airbags, in 1981. Who knows how many lives have been saved by Mercedes dedicated commitment to road safety over the years.
When Mercedes Benz launched the 190E in 1982, who would have thought at the time, that 638,000 would be sold over the course of the next eleven years. During the 1980s and 1990s Mercedes were enjoying considerable success. In 1998 the company merged with The Chrysler Corporation of America and Daimler Chrysler was formed. As is so often the case with these mergers/takeovers, it didn’t work out and Chrysler having initially invested $36 billion sold 80.1% of the company for $7.4 billion in 2007. The purchaser was Cerberus Capital Management.
Mercedes are now paying a great deal of attention to getting their build quality right and in a relatively short period of time have gone a long way to restoring their reputation and good name. Contract hire companies are once again happy to recommend Mercedes Benz and soon expect them, quite deservedly, to be once again categorised as best for reliability.
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