About Car Buying

The ups and downs of Mercedes Benz cars

Mercedes Benz with its beautiful designs and precision engineering is in many ways representative of the great achievements of the German motor industry. However it has not always been plain sailing for Mercedes, they have gone through some very difficult times; one such occasion was quite recently, when there were so many concerns about Mercedes reliability that contract hire and leasing companies were reluctant to recommend Mercedes. There was some evidence of contract hire brokers switching potential Mercedes buyers into other marques, such as BMW and Audi. The Mercedes model that was most criticized in the motoring press was the M Class.

Various surveys at the time criticised Mercedes build quality; in 2003 The Consumer Association carried out a survey that criticised all the major German manufacturers, saying that they had all deteriorated, but Mercedes which they had previously considered best for reliability, was changed to average.

The Mercedes M class was placed last out of 142 cars surveyed by the BBC’s Top Gear programme in 2004. These were not good times for Mercedes but to their credit they have since made considerable changes, and gradually the Mercedes marque has once again become associated with dependability

In 1886 the world’s first automobile was invented by Karl Benz. He patented the vehicle and called it the Benz Patent Motorwagen. Benz was based in the German town of Mannheim.The car’s three wheels were little wider that today’s bicycle wheels. The ride was rather harsh and the occupants had no protection from the elements. Lights to enable the vehicle to negotiate the poor road conditions at night had not been thought of.

The Daimler Riding Car was invented by Gottleib Daimler and William Maybach, it had an internal combustion engine. In practice the vehicle was a motorcycle, it seems strange that the world’s first motorcylcle should be called a car. The engine had just one upright cylinder and was capable of a maximum of 13 Kilometres per hour. Due to it’s one upright cylinder, it became know as the Grandfather Clock engine. Interestingly Benz and Daimler were working in close proximity to each other, some 100 Kilometres apart but neither was aware of the other, or the work that they were carrying out.

The Grandfather Clock engine was installed in Daimler and Maybach’s motorised carraige which was launched in 1886. It had a top speed of 18 Kilometres per hour which was considered fast. This time the vehicle had four wheels, the worlds first car with four wheels. The car that Karl Benz patented had three wheels. At an exhibition in Paris in 1889 Daimler exhibited their “wire wheel” car. There was considerable interest in the vehicle, some say that it was seeing this vehicle on display that caused the birth of the French car indusry.

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.

Benz developed the two seater Velocipide in 1894, it had two seats and was capable of 20 KPH. He sold a large number; some 1200, which in those days was a considerable number. He had less success with his motorized bus; roads were still in poor condition, this combined with the vehicle’s narrow wheels made it quite impractical. It had probably not occurred to anyone at the time, that wider wheels would have made a big difference.

Daimler launched a belt driven car in 1896, now with two cylinders but still it could only achieve 18 mph. Daimler’s truck, a flat bed truck, was the world’s first. It was rather odd looking but nevertheless very popular in spite of it’s fairly limiting top speed of 11kph. They were used by German breweries for beer deliveries, some were exported to England. Also in 1896 Daimler brought out a vehicle capable of carrying loads of aything up to 500kgs. It had a rather strange appearance, looking a little like one of the covered wagons you would see in films portraying the Wild West.

Benz’s new vehicle in 1899 was called the Dos a Dos, it could achieve speeds of up to 35 KPH, which was fast. It was a 4 seater, two of the passengers would sit facing the rear of the car.

When Daimler died in 1990, control of the company passed to William Maybach. A very succesful motor racing driver and businessman, Emil Jellinek told Maybach that he should produce cars that were faster and more modern in design. He also asked Maybach to call his cars Mercedes; his young daughter’s name. This is where the name Mercedes, that the cars still carry today, originated.

During the 1990’s Daimler was producing faster cars and of a more modern design. The 35 horsepower Simplex was relaced by by the 40 horsepower Mercedes Simplex; it ws an impressive single seater car that could reach speeds of 80 kph. A 40 horsepower Mercedes Simplex is thought to be the oldest Mercedes in existence today.

In 1905 Benz produced the 18 hp Double Phaeton and two years later the 75 horsepower Mercedes Double Phaeton was launched. It had 6 cylinders and was really very fast indeed at over 94 kph. Both Benz and Daimler started to do well in motor racing.

During the First World War both Benz and Daimler’s production were converted into producing materials for the war effort. The German economy suffered badly at the end of the war, there was a shortage of fuel and a heavy luxury tax had been placed on car production, inflation was starting to get out of control. The cost of a car became so high it was out of most people’s reach. A far cry from today where a luxury Mercedes can be found on contract hire from around 300 per month.

Benz found himself in a weak position and it is said that an approach was made by Daimler, with a view to merging with Benz, but it fell through. In 1924 with both companies suffering badly from the economic conditions, they signed an agreement and eventually merged in 1926.

The first car that Mercedes produced after the war was a supercharged two-seater sports car capable of 108 kph. In 1927 Mercedes Benz were producing a touring car, the Model S, S for sport. The top speed of this 6-cylinder car was quite outstanding at 160 kph. Then in 1928 they brought out an even faster vehicle which was the SSK Sports two seater, originally designed for hill climbing, it was 30 kph faster than the Model S, at 190 kph.

The next really spectacular car produced by Mercedes Benz was the Mercedes-Benz 500K, in 1934. The Special Roadster was the most popular version with long sleek lines, it would still be considered by most today, as a beautiful car. It had eight cylinders and a top speed of 160 Kilometres per hour. It was really very expensive at 28,000 Marks and only for the seriously rich.

The 550K was followed by the 540K, a car not dissimilar in design but 10 kph faster. Mercedes were also manufacturing the Mercedes Benz 770, a very large luxury car. The vehicle was a favourite with Germany’s captains of industry, in which they would be chauffeur driven. At the time manufacturers did not seem concerned about the very small numbers that they produced of a particular model, before bringing out the next model, about 420 of the 540K were produced and Mercedes manufactured less than 120 of the 770.

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 long ago as the 1960s Mercedes were carrying out quite sophisticated vehicle testing, sophisticated that is, for those times. It is hard to imagine in today’s world of high technology that the system they used for transmitting data from the test vehicle to another vehicle that gathered the information was a long cable, running between the two cars. Clearly it was important for both vehicles to drive at the same speed.

During 1963 Mercedes Benz launched the 230SL, the first sports car to have a crumple free zone. It was not particularly fast compared with some of the previous models; it had a top speed of less than 200 Kilometres per hour. It was however hugely popular selling, nearly 20,000 models. Mercedes had come a long way from the days when they were making just a few hundred of each model. In 1978 Mercedes Benz introduced anti lock brakes (ABS). In 1981 they were the first manufacturer to introduce the airbag. One can only speculate on the number of lives and serious injuries, those safety features will have saved over the years.

The 190E came out in 1982 and in 11 years sold an incredible 638,000.Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Mercedes continued to sell large numbers of cars and in 1998 Daimler Benz merged with The Chrysler Corporation, effectively a takeover by Daimler Benz and formed Daimler Chrysler. It was not a success and in 2007 Daimler sold 80.1% of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 Billion, having initially invested $36 billion in 1998.

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.

Should you have any queries or questions with regard to Licence checking, Fleet Management, Contract Hire, Personal Contract Hire, Lease Purchase or vehicle Hire Purchase, please do not hesitate to contact us. Bowater Price plc 01494 536 536. www.bowaterprice.com.

Custom Search