We associate the name of mercedes with wealth or car quality. What many of us don’t know is that the car itself dates back to over a hundred years.
To tell the story of Mercedes brand cars, you first must know the characters involved with the company. Those characters are Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz. Both men were born only 60 miles apart in southern Germany. Daimler was born March 17, 1834. A decade later, on November 25, Carl Benz was born. Although they grew up with little in common, machines from an early age fascinated both boys. Because their approach to building cars was quite different, it is doubtful, though, that they met or even knew what the other was doing.
In 1886, Carl Benz built a motorized tricycle. His first four-wheeler, the Victoria, was built in 1893. The first production car was the 1894 Benz Velo, which participated in the first recorded car race, the Paris-Rouen race. In 1895, Benz built his first truck.
In 1886, Gottlieb Daimler literally built a horseless carriage. Although we think of the car as being German, its history dates far back into America as well. In 1888 Daimler made a business deal with William Steinway (of piano fame) to produce Daimler’s products in the US. From 1904 until a fire in 1907, Steinway produced Mercedes passenger cars, Daimler’s light trucks, and his engines on Long Island.