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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.

In a survey carried out by The Consumer Association in 2003, Mercedes was downgraded by two categories, from best to average in reliability. Although to be fair all the German manufacturers came in for criticism, they said, “No major German marques have escaped the steady decline we have noticed in recent years”. Interestingly the manufacturer that received the most complaints from those surveyed was Volkswagen.

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

What became known as the world’s first car was patented by Karl Benz in 1886. Benz was based in the town of Mannheim, he called his car the Benz Patent Motorwagen. It had just three wheels similar in width to today’s bycycle wheels. The ride was bumpy and the passengers were as exposed as much to the elements, as if they were riding a bicycle. Driving at night would have been hazardous, as there were no light on the vehicle.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1990 Daimler died, leaving control of his company to Wilhem Maybach. Emil Jellinek a highly successful businessman and motor racing driver had been pressing Maybach to produce cars that were more modern and faster. Jellinek asked Maybach to name the cars after his daughter Mercedes and this was the start of the Mercedes car.

The early 1990’s saw changes at Daimler; the cars were faster and the designs were more modern. The single seater 40 horsepower Simplex repalced the 35 horsepower Simplex, the new version was fast with a top speed of 80 kph. One of these vehicles is said to be the today’s oldest surviving Mercedes Benz.

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.

As with the British motor manufacturers, during the First World War production was switched to producing military vehicles. At the end of the war the German economy was virtually destroyed; inflation was rising rapidly, there was a shortage of fuel and a luxury tax had been placed on cars, making the cost of a car out of the reach of the average person. Quite a contrast from today, where for around 300 a month on contract hire, one can be driving a new Mercedes Benz.

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 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 outstanding Gull-Wing two-seater hardtop was launched during the 1950s, so called because when the two doors were open, they opened upwards; it looked like a gull in flight. There had been nothing like it before and the motoring press loved it. It was sold very successfully in America but at around $10,000 it was extremely expensive. However had someone bought one and held onto it, they would have made a lot of money; in 2006 a 1955 model was sold for the equivalent of $716,000 usd in an auction in Australia. In 1957 Mercedes brought out the 300 SL. This time an open sports car, it was extremely fast at nearly 250 kph. This model sold very well in America.

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.

In 1963 Mercedes introduced the 230 SL a sports car with a crumple free zone, the worlds first. It was surprisingly slow compared some of Mercedes earlier sports cars. This didn’t stop it being an enormous success; Mercedes sold almost 20,000 of the 230 SL, a far cry from the days when they were selling only a handful of each model. More safety innovations followed; in 1978 ABS was introduced by Mercedes Benz and then the airbag in 1981. Mercedes should be proud of their record in safety and the lives that they have inevitably saved over the years.

1982 saw the launch of the hugely popular 190E, of which over 600,000 were sold. Mercedes enjoyed great success during the 1980’s and 90’s. Daimler Chrysler was created in 1998, when The Chrysler Corporation merged with Mercedes Benz. This proved to be pretty much a disaster for both companies. In 2007 Chrysler sold 80.1% to Cerberus Capital Management. Chrysler had invested $36 billion in Mercedes, their sale of 80.1% of the company, returned them just $7.4 billion.

Mercedes are now concentrating on their build quality and restoring confidence in the marque and in turn contract hire and leasing companies are confident in recommending Mercedes Benz to their clients. Soon they will hopefully be once again, classed as best for reliability.

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