Some notes on Mercedes

Howdy. Today I will look into the phenomenon called Mercedes. The German car. By delivering some informal notes.

My father had a Mercedes 200 sedan. The one with the internal MB designation W 110. A 60s fintail Mercedes, black.

From the dealer he got the promo poster depicted above. And he gave it to me to adorn my room.

The poster was in color. It was predominately grey with grey-blue sedans... graublau... and a splash of yellow on the sports car. The caption reads:

Das Programm der 19 besten Mercedes-Benz Ideen ist etwas grösser geworden. Um ein Stückchen Zukunft.

That is,

The program of the 19 best Mercedes-Benz ideas has become somewhat bigger. With a bit of future.

The “future” referred to was the wankel engine C111 sports car.

This was my initiation into the Mercedes cult: adoring a Faustian machine, so stylish, so sleek...

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Mercedes is worthy of adoration for more than the mere product, the mere car individual you encounter as a driver and passenger.

The thing of it is, Mercedes established the car trend called "quality production sedan". BMW quickly followed -- and now they both exert hegemony in the premium car segment. And this was due to a fine combination of engineering mastership and design excellence. It's a discreet art form, actually.

You could say, Mercedes is like an expression of the German soul: sleek, efficient, a little stern but also with considerable style. And as an industrial venture it has only grown since its inception... two lost world wars haven't kept it down.







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