Mercedes Information

Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG. The name first appeared in 1926 but traces its origins to Daimler's 1901 Mercedes and to Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first automobile.

Mercedes Wallpaper

Mercedes-Benz traces its origins to Karl Benz's creation of the first petrol-powered car, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, patented in January 1886 and Gottlieb Daimler and engineer Wilhelm Maybach's conversion of a stagecoach by the addition of a petrol engine later that year. The Mercedes automobile was first marketed in 1901 by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. The first Mercedes-Benz brand name vehicles were produced in 1926, following the merger of Karl Benz's and Gottlieb Daimler's companies into the Daimler-Benz company. Mercedes-Benz has introduced many technological and safety innovations that later became common in other vehicles. Mercedes-Benz is one of the most well-known and established automotive brands in the world, and is also the world's oldest automotive brand still in existence today. For information relating to the famous three-pointed star, see under the title Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft including the merger into Daimler-Benz.

Current model range
Mercedes-Benz carries a full range of passenger, light commercial and heavy commercial equipment. Vehicles are manufactured in multiple countries worldwide. The Smart marque of city cars and Maybach luxury cars are also produced by Daimler AG.

Passenger cars
The following passenger vehicles were in production in 2011:

Mercedes CLS

• A-Class—Hatchback
• B-Class—Multi-Activity
• C-Class—Saloon, Estate & Coupé
• CL-Class—Coupé
• CLS-Class—Coupé
• E-Class—Saloon, Estate, Coupé & Cabriolet
• G-Class—Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)
• GL-Class—Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)
• GLK-Class - Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)
• M-Class—Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)
• R-Class—Luxury Tourer Vehicle (LTV)
• S-Class—Saloon
• SL-Class—Roadster
• SLK-Class—Roadster
• SLS AMG—Coupé
• SLS AMG—Roadster
• Viano—Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV)

Trucks
Mercedes-Benz Trucks is now part of the Daimler Trucks division, and includes companies that were part of the DaimlerChrysler merger. Gottlieb Daimler sold the world's first truck in 1886.

Buses and vans
Mercedes-Benz Vario

Mercedes-Benz also produces buses, mainly for Europe and Asia. Mercedes-Benz produces a range of vans. The first factory to be built outside Germany after WWII was in Argentina. It originally built trucks, many of which were modified independently to buses, popularly named Colectivo. Today, it builds buses, trucks and the Sprinter van.


Significant models produced

Mercedes Vito

• 1928: SSK racing car
• 1930: 770 "Großer Mercedes" state and ceremonial car
• 1934: 500 K
• 1936: 260 D World's first diesel production car
• 1936: 170
• 1938: W195 Speed Record-breaker
• 1951: Mercedes-Benz 300, knownly as "Adenauer Mercedes"
• 1953: "Ponton" models
• 1954: 300SL "Gullwing"
• 1959: "Fintail" models
• 1960: 220SE Cabriolet
• 1963: 600 "Grand Mercedes"
• 1963: 230SL "Pagoda"
• 1965: Mercedes-Benz S-Class
• 1966: 300SEL 6.3
• 1968: W114 "new generation" compact cars
• 1969: C111 experimental vehicle
• 1972: Mercedes-Benz W107 350SL
• 1974: 450SEL 6.9
• 1974: 240D
• 1975: Mercedes-Benz W123 Wagon - Mercedes' first station wagon
• 1976: 300D
• 1978: 300SD - Mercedes' first turbo diesel
• 1979: 500SEL and G-Class
• 1983: 190E 2.3–16
• 1991: 600SEL
• 1993: First 'E-Class'
• 1995: First 'Joint Mercedes-Benz & AMG' (C43 AMG)
• 1995: Mercedes-Benz SL73 AMG, 7.3 V12 (biggest engine ever put in a Mercedes-Benz)
• 1996: Mercedes-Benz Renntech E7.4RS
• 1997: Mercedes-Benz SLK
• 1997: Mercedes-Benz M-Class
• 2004: Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
• 2004: Mercedes-Benz CLS
• 2007: E320, GL320 Bluetec, ML320 Bluetec, R320 Bluetec
• 2010: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

Car nomenclature
Until 1994, Mercedes-Benz used an alphanumeric system for categorising their vehicles, consisting of a number sequence approximately equal to the engine's displacement in liters multiplied by 100, followed by an arrangement of alphabetical suffixes indicating body style and engine type.

• "C" indicates a coupe or cabriolet body style.
• "D" means the vehicle is equipped with a diesel engine.
• "E" (for "Einspritzen") means the vehicle's engine is equipped with petrol fuel injection. In most cases (the 600 limousine being the exception), if neither "E" or "D" is present, the vehicle has a petrol engine with a carburettor.
• "G" denotes the Geländewagen off-road vehicle.
• "K" was used in the 1930s, indicating a supercharger ("Kompressor") equipped engine. One exception is the SSK, where K indicates "Kurz" (short-wheelbase).
• "L" means "Leicht" (lightweight) for sporting models, and "Lang" (long-wheelbase) for sedan models.
• "R" stands for "Rennen" (racing), used for racing cars (for example, the 300SLR).
• "S" Sonderklasse "Special class" for flagship models.
• "T" stands for "Touring" and indicates an estate (or station wagon) body style.

Some models in the 1950s also had lower-case letters (b, c, and d) to indicate specific trim levels.

Mercedes SLS

For some models, the numeric part of the designation does not match the engine displacement. This was done to show the model's position in the model lineup independent of displacement or in the price matrix. For these vehicles, the actual displacement in liters is suffixed to the model designation. For example, the 190-class all had "190" for the numeric designation, regardless of the engine size, to indicate their entry-level status. Also, some older models (such as the SS and SSK) did not have a number as part of the designation at all.

For the 1994 model year, Mercedes-Benz revised the naming system. Models were divided into "classes" denoted by an arrangement of up to three letters (see "Current model range" above), followed by a three-digit (or two-digit for AMG models, with the number approximately equal to the displacement in liters multiplied by 10) number related to the engine size, as before. Variants of the same model (such as an estate version, or a vehicle with a diesel engine) are no longer given a separate letter. In most cases, the class designation is arbitrary. The SLR and SLS supercars do not carry a numerical designation.

As before, some models' numerical designations do not match the engine's actual displacement; in these cases the number shows the model's relative performance within the class. For example, the E250 CGI has greater performance than the E200 CGI because of different engine tuning, even though both have 1.8-litre engines. Recent AMG models use the "63" designation (in honor of the 1960s 6.3-litre M100 engine) despite being equipped with either a 6.2-litre (M156) or 5.5-litre (M157) engine.