Daimler, Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz (commonly known as Mercedes) is a famous German brand of automobiles, buses, coaches and trucks owned by DaimlerChrysler (formerly known as Daimler-Benz). more...

Mercedes-Benz is one of the premier automobile manufacturers in the world; it is also the world's oldest. Its primary competition in automobile production are Audi, Cadillac, BMW, Lexus, Bentley and Maserati. The three-pointed star was designed by Gottlieb Daimler to show the ability of his motors for land, air and sea usage. The sign first appeared on a Daimler vehicle in 1909. The Benz laurel was added in 1926 to symbolize the union of the two firms. The plain ring seen today was first used in 1937. Mercedes-Benz cars are one of the most technologically advanced vehicles and up to the 1990s were widely known for their flawless design and execution.

History

The origin of the company dates back to the 1880s, when Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz invented the internal combustion engine-powered automobile independently, in southwestern Germany. Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, who together invented the four-stroke engine, worked together in Cannstatt (a city district of Stuttgart); Benz had his shop in Mannheim near Heidelberg. There is no record of the two inventors ever having met.

In the early 1900s, the Daimler cars built at Untertuerkheim (also a city district of Stuttgart) were raced successfully by an Austrian dealer named Emil Jellinek, who entered the cars under the name of his daughter, Mercédès. After suggesting some design modifications, he promised the company a large order on the conditions that he was granted the exclusive Daimler concession for Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium and USA, and that he would sell the new model branded as "Mercedes". The name change was also helpful in preventing legal troubles, as Daimler had sold exclusive rights to the name and technical concepts to companies abroad. As a result, luxury cars known as Daimler were and are built in England. A fire that gutted the old Steinway piano factory in New York that had been converted to produce Mercedes cars cut short the dream of an American-built Mercedes.

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