Mercedes-Benz was originated in the 1880s by two men: Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. They invented the internal combustion engine powered vehicle. What is funny about Mercedes-Benz is that the two originators never even knew each other, though their work was almost directly related. They both resided in Southwest Germany.
Daimler and his friend Wilhelm Maybach both help in inventing the four-stroke engine in Cannstatt, which is a district of Stuttgart. They worked never knowing that they would one day be one of the originators of a luxury automobile.
Benz on the other hand worked in Mannheim which is close to Heidelberg. According to history, the two inventors never even met.
Early in the 1890s, Daimler was building his cars at Unterturkheim. They were built and raced successfully. It was so successful that an Austrian dealer by the name of Emil Jellinek entered the cars in the races and often won. He decided to name the cars after his daughter whose name was Mercedes. He was very impressed with the work of Daimler and Maybach that he decided to make a large order from the two. The only stipulations were that he would decide some design modifications to be made, and that the cars were to be named after his daughter Mercedes. He also demanded that he would get the full resell rights to the countries: Austria, Hungary, France, Belgium and the United States. He believed so much in the cars, he decided to invest a large portion of his assets to the company.
Using "Mercedes" as the name of the cars made prevented legal problems. Before he even met Emil Jellinek, Daimler had sold the rights to his name and designs to companies overseas. This is the reason for high end cars that were built then and are still being built which are named Daimler. They are made and sold in England.
Mercedes was going to have a factory in New York, but when a fire destroyed a former piano factory, it killed any hopes of an American-built Mercedes Benz.
Originally, the two original designers of the luxury car didn't have a company together. They were actually rivals in the company world. Daimler had his company Daimler Motorengesellschaft and Benz had his, Benz and Cie. Having hard times in the 1920's created a pressure for the two companies to work together. They did end up doing just this. In 1926, the two companies merged and became Daimler-Benz AG. At this time, the company was producing Mercedes cars and trucks.
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The company's logo has become the symbol of luxury as far as cars are concerned. When you see a Mercedes logo, you think of excellence and class. The logo consists of a three point silver star, surrounded by a circle. This symbol represents Daimler's original wishes to create an engine that is small, reliable, and powerful. They are meant to be able to travel on land, air, or sea.
Mercedes is known for its land engines and vehicles more than land and sea, but Mercedes has also manufactured engines for boats and airplanes. The airplanes were for military and civil use only.
World War Two brought some controversy for Mercedes the company. They are said to have used up to thirty thousand forced employees and POW's. Some of these workers eventually ended up striking the company, and sent to concentration camps. This turned out to be essential for the company to produce at the quantity and quality that was expected of them. They used this many workers, both forced and voluntary, from 1941. This was also what was needed for the construction for Nazi Germany's war machine.
Mercedes-Benz cars also have a reputation of being one of the best kinds of vehicles anywhere in the world. They usually make their cars with the purpose of quality over quantity. Mercedes has a focus on state of the art engineering. Many times, Mercedes will have a feature that will not be present in the company's competitor's vehicle for years. For this reason, Mercedes is one of the most expensive vehicles made, compared to competitors making similar, but not equal, clones. The company has created a reputation for quality and reliability equaled by none.
Mercedes are often what the rich and higher class population drives. This sometimes includes celebrities and politicians. Anyone with power can usually be seen in a Mercedes. Mercedes is known most for their limousines. Anyone being seen in a limousine made by Mercedes can be said to be important based only on the car in which they are riding. Some of the presidents of different countries, along with politicians are often seen driving Mercedes. When people become rich for whatever reason, they usually decide to purchase a Mercedes-Benz in order to show their new found wealth.
Mercedes is also known for their sports cars. Models included are the supercharged SSK and Gullwing 300SL, which were produced in 1954.
On the other end of the spectrum are the less-expensive cars that were mass produced. The Volkswagen is one rear-engine car which offers some of the features of the more expensive Mercedes, but at a much smaller price tag. Mercedes also produced a similar car which was far less successful, called the 130 H.
Always on the edge as far as technology is concerned, Mercedes-Benz was the first to introduce things such as fuel injection and anti-locking brakes. These are just a couple among many. Sometimes, though, Mercedes takes the edge too far, and it costs them a lot of money. Recently, they introduced an active brake system which they installed in over six hundred thousand Benz's. This ended up causing problems in the cars, and causing a massive recall that cost the company millions and millions of dollars. Even more, the consumer results from the late eighties showed that the reliability of Mercedes was falling off what it used to be. For this reason, as of late, Mercedes has invested a lot in making their cars the best and most reliable in the World. For the past few years, the company has brought back the trust in the brand's reliability.
Another aspect of the Mercedes-Benz company is their involvement in the Motor sport world. Throughout their history, the company has been very successful in motor racing. In the early 1900s, Mercedes released the Simplex, which was the first race car that was built for racing by the company. It was made to be much lower then the similar horse carriages. For this reason, along with its superior design, the Simplex dominated the racing industry for years.
The winning started in 1914, when Mercedes won the French Grand Prix. This was a great disappointment to the French at the time. Mercedes put together an aerodynamically driven Tropfenwagen in the late 1920s. It was a dominate force in all the races in which it was entered.
In the 1930s, Mercedes dominated the Grand Prix racing industry in Europe, aided by their elite Silver Arrows. They did this, while going back and forth with wins against their rivals, Auto Union. The company set record speeds at almost 270 mph. The team was elite, and guided by the elitist Rennleiter Alfred Neubauer.
1952 also brought a big year in the racing industry for Mercedes when they released their small and underpowered gull winged 300 SL. This machine ended up winning many of the important races that year which included the 24 hours of Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana, among others. In 1954, Mercedes got involved in Formula One racing. They put their cars in the race, and finished one-two in the race. This was very big for the Germans, especially since later that day the German football team won the world championship.
Tragedy hit in 1955 when a crash of Mercedes cars killed close to 80 spectators at a race in Le Mans. A 300 SLR smashed into another car, and went flying into the stands, causing devastation. This is the reason for a retirement of the Mercedes team at the end of the 1955 season. They were too devastated by the happenings of that year. They decided to take a break from this type of racing.
After that, the company decided to enter some limousines into rally racing in the 1960s and 80s. It wasn't until the late 80s that Mercedes entered itself back into sports car racing. They came back in style when they used their new compact car, the W201 190 class, to break three world records. This was August 13-21 at the Nardo High Speed Track in southern Italy. The car was running with 16-valve engine built by Cosworth. The race was ran for 201 straight hours, with it only stopping in short (under a minute) pit stops every couple of hours. The race ran for 50,000 km with Mercedes' top speed being 247 km per hour.
Mercedes became sneaky in 1994 when they won the Indianapolis 500 with an engine that would cause a rules change the next year. The engine was built based on a loop hole in the specifications of the race. Using this to their advantage, Mercedes built an engine that would only be used for this one race. They knew that the specifications would change after the committee saw how more powerful the engine would be using the push rods. It didn't matter to Mercedes since they knew the change would come after they had won the race.
In 1993, Mercedes made its return to Formula One racing. They came back as an engine supplier to the F1 team of Sauber. They introduced a ten cylinder engine that was manufactured by Ilmor. In 1995, the engine replaced the Peugeot as the Mclaren engine. Mercedes decided in 1996 to just buy out Ilmor, and merge the company as a branch of its bigger parent, Mercedes-Benz.
After this in 1997, David Coulthard started a time of success for all parties involved, including Mercedes. The team was labeled Team McLaren Mercedes, and became known for success. David Coulthard won one of the first races in 1997. This was the first success for Mercedes in Formula One racing since that of Juan Manuel Fangio's in 1955. This was also the first win for Coulthard for three years prior to 1997. Mercedes also had success in the subsequent years of 1998 and 1999. Since then, the F1 Mercedes has not been as successful, due to retirement of some of its key drivers. Still, they had four wins in the three years of this decline. 2005 brought more success for the team, with them winning 10 of the 19 races of the year.
Mercedes has teamed with McLaren to build a super car. They did this in 1993 when they released the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, which has a supercharged 8 cylinder engine. It eats up 5.5l of gas, while being very powerful. This car featured about 500 horsepower, and 780 nm of torque. This car has a top speed of about 330 km per hour and cost about $500,000 in Euros. The new model of this car dons a price tag starting at 454, 750, which maximum speeds being at 207 mph. It goes from zero to sixty in 3.8 seconds.
Mercedes also has relations in different vehicles. They produce a large truck, the Unimog, which is a powerful four wheel drive truck. It has a lot of features that make it an all around choice for the man's workhorse. Its offset axles and elastic frame make it perfect for going on rough terrain. And even at its high price tag, it remains very popular as a snow plow and desert, jungle, and mountain vehicle. Mercedes also produces buses. These are mostly for use in Europe and Asia. Another one of the Mercedes' branches is the one that produces Vans. The company produces a range of vans which include the Vito, Sprinter, and Vario. The Vito is a light weight van with a maximum weight of two thousand pounds. The Sprinter is a mid size van with a weight limit from four to twelve thousand dollars. Last but not least is the Vario, which is a heavy sized van that can hold up to fifteen thousand pounds. After the millennium came and went, Mercedes jumped on the wagon of making sport utility vehicles (also known as SUVs). They produced the W463 and W 163, which have brought the Mercedes into families with kids. They are made for size and comfort, a change from their cars. The last branch of Mercedes vehicles are their trucks. The trucks made by Mercedes include the Atego, Axor, Actros, and Econic. The Atego is a light truck. The Axor is a step up from the Atego, being a mid size rigid truck. The Actros is another step up as a very rigid and articulated heavy weight machine. The Econic is a specialty version of the Axor. All of these make up the branches of the company's vehicles that they manufacture.
1994 brought about change in the naming system for Mercedes. They changed the order of the specifications. So the engine displacement was changed from being after the letter of the model to being put before. For example, an 500E became an E500.
Whatever your choice of cars, vans, buses or SUV's, Mercedes has something that will suit your needs. The company comes from a very prosperous past, and creates a reputation for being a step above the rest. As the needs of the consumer changes, so does the design of Mercedes. They continue to make a car for the driver, without losing focus on their goal of power and reliability. The racing side of Mercedes has also picked up in 2005 with the winning of many of the years racing. Mercedes-Benz, as a company, is strong, and they are going to be strong for many years to come.
Tags: Mercedes Benz History, Luxury cars, fastest cars, new cars.
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