World's First Car Celebrates 120th Birthday

Mercedes-Benz Pioneer Invented Motor Car That Changed Everything

MONTVALE, N.J., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The automobile celebrates its
120th birthday on January 29. On this date in 1886, Karl Benz applied
for a patent for his "vehicle with gas engine operation." Patent DRP
37435 for the Benz Patent Motor Car granted in November of the same
year is regarded as the birth certificate of the automobile. In later
years the Benz organization and the company formed by fellow
automotive pioneer Gottlieb Daimler would merge to form Daimler-Benz.
Karl Benz is, therefore, credited as co-founder not only of
Mercedes-Benz but also the automotive industry itself.

Seven months after Benz filed his patent for the automobile, Daimler
with his master engineer Wilhelm Maybach attached his Daimler engine
to a four-wheeled coach producing the first "horseless" carriage.
Following Daimler's death in 1900, his largest distributor, Emil
Jellinek, asked Maybach to design a car more advanced than any other;
it will be named for Jellinek's daughter, Mercedes. The resulting
Mercedes of 1901 defined the car as we essentially know it today.

Unlike other inventors, Benz did not merely install an internal
combustion engine into an existing coach chassis. His design extended
to the entire vehicle: it was quite clear to him that a vehicle
powered by an internal combustion engine was subject to engineering
principles quite different from those applying to a horse-drawn
carriage.

Benz created innovative technology with classic engineering methods: a
small horizontal, single-cylinder four-stroke engine running on
gasoline, electric ignition, carburetor, water-cooled radiator,
steering and tubular frame. With these features, the first motor car
came into being in 1886. The vehicle was an absolute original. All
automobiles produced since that time stand as heirs of the Patent
Motor Car.

The rest of the Patent Motor Car story belongs to history. Three
vehicles were completed by 1888. One of them was secretly taken out by
Bertha Benz, the inventor's wife, who drove it with her sons 53 miles
from Mannheim to Pforzheim. Thus Bertha Benz became the "first woman
driver." The journey gained much publicity for the vehicle, and Benz
sold a number of cars to customers as a result.

A four-wheeled vehicle, the Benz "Victoria," followed in 1893. This
again incorporated numerous innovations, including double-pivot
steering, which is still employed in today's automobiles. And so it
continues: with each new vehicle, the automobile improves just that
much more -- to this very day with the introduction of the 2007
Mercedes-Benz S-Class which exemplifies the essence of generations of
innovative technology from Mercedes-Benz, the world's first car
company.

In addition to the original patent for the automobile, further
Mercedes-Benz "firsts" include: development of the safety car body
with rigid passenger cell and front and rear crumple zones (1951);
electronic anti-lock brake system "ABS" (1978); and Electronic
Stability Program "ESP" (1995).

About Mercedes-Benz USA

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, is
responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz
and Maybach products in the United States. In 2005, MBUSA achieved an
all-time sales record of 224,421 new vehicles, setting the highest
sales volume ever in its history and achieving 12 consecutive years of
sales growth. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found
on the Internet at http://www.mbusa.com and http://www.maybachusa.com
.

01120602 SOURCE Mercedes-Benz USA