The Success and occasional failures of Mercedes Benz cars

Posted by Gary Terrazas on June 23, 2008

Mercedes Benz is a marque that has throughout the years been associated with luxury and high build quality. When one sees a new Mercedes Benz with it’s beautiful lines driving down the road, its easy to forget that like most manufacturers Mercedes Benz have had their ups and downs, some of them quite recently; Mercedes build quality started to suffer in recent years, it came to the point where contract hire and leasing companies became nervous about recommending them. The model that came in for the most criticism 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

When car production started again, the Mercedes two seater sports car was launched. It had a supercharged engine and a top speed of over 108 kilometres per hour. During 1927 Mercedes Benz started production of the Model S touring car, the S stood for sport. The vehicle had six cylinder and an amazing speed of over 160 kilometres per hour. 1928 saw the introduction of the SSK Sports two seater, it was designed for hill climbing races and was even faster at over 190 kilometres per hour.

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.

Mercedes were accused of using forced labour and prisoners of war, for their manufacturing, during the Second World War. They had become part of the German war effort but of course it wasn’t a matter of choice; the British motor manufacturers were also part of the British War effort. The allied bombers, just as the German bombers targeted factories in Britain, heavily targeted the Mercedes manufacturing plants. At the end of the war, things looked very bleak for Mercedes; their factories lay in ruins, the machinery was damaged or destroyed and there was an extreme shortage of raw materials. Nevertheless in 1948 production was re started. 1951 saw the introduction of the 300 saloon, over 4500 were sold. The Mercedes Benz 300S convertible also went into production.

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.

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.

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.

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.