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Wednesday, September 5, 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D5 B e s t W h e e l s O a k v i l l e Company has survived wars and mergers (C o n tin u e d fro m p a g e D6) And a honeycomb grille, a feature found on Mercedes-Benz cars to this day. While Jellinek was urging Daimler into the 20th century, archrival Benz was struggling. Many could and would make similar claims, but Carl Benz gets majority support as the true inventor of the automobile; he was the first to develop a car in the form in which we more-or-less see it today, and to com mercialize it successfully, too. But by 1900, he had become stuck in his old ways* He felt the mid-engined, single-horizontal-cylinder, belt-driven buggy he and wife Bertha drove though the streets of Mannheim in 1885 was as it good as it was going to get - he had added a fourth wheel by 1893. As Henry Ford was when he, too, got stuck in the pas, Benz was nudged aside by his progeny; sons Eugen and Richard, plus some hired guns, began designing new generations of modem Benz automobiles. Competition, both in the sporting and commercial senses, continued to mark the rivalry between Daimler and Benz. (In one of life's little ironies, there is no record that the two giants of the German car business ever met, although their headquarters were less than 100 km apart.) By the 1920s, the automobile had graduated from rich man's playtoy to everyman's transportation in most modem countries - except Germany. Still hobbled by the strictures of the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I, the country's economy simply couldn't support the dozens of small car makers, each of whom built only a handful of expensive automobiles for the privileged few. M ergers were inevitable. In 1924, an "Agreement of Mutual Interest" was signed by the manage ments of Daimler-MotorenGesellschaft and Benz & Cie. Sales, promotion and service departments were united, model lines rationalized, and each company's board of directors contained members of the other's. But the two companies retained their distinctive identifies, at least for the moment. Another intriguing point in this Vintage cars can have vintage plates A classic Mercedes-Benz 200 Series SL agreement was that Carl and Bertha wanted Daimler to leave those fields to Benz, still alive and kicking, would be his company; in return, Daimler's man financially provided for financially for agement wanted BMW to refrain from entering the car business. the rest of their lives. Neither side agreed, Popp quit the This "non-merger" officially became a "merger" in 1926. Daimler was the Daimler-Benz board, and set in motion stronger of the two companies (Dr. an intense rivalry that continues to this Ferdinand Porsche was now chief engi day. One aspect of the Daimler-Benz neer) while Benz was nearly bankrupt. But the new board of management merger that presented no problems was contained about equal numbers from choosing an emblem for the new enter each side, and the managing director, prise. The laurel wreath of Benz was drawn around the three-pointed star of was Wilhelm Kissel, a Benz man. Among the outside directors of the Daimler-Mercedes (initially standing new Daimler-Benz Aktiengesellschaft for Gottlieb Daimler's desire to build engines to power machines for land, was Franz Joseph Popp, then managing sea and air). director of BMW in Munich. Emil Under Kissel's careful direction, the Georg von Stauss, the head of the new venture flourished. Diesel engines Deutsche Bank and the main instigator and commercial vehicles increased in of the merger, had hoped to draw BMW importance. Dr. Porsche left, failing to into his new conglomerate, in effect convince management of the need to forming a German equivalent of · build a small, inexpensive car - he General Motors. would later succeed with the aid of the At that point, BMW built only little Austrian colonel. motorcycle and aircraft engines. Popp Racing successes helped keep Daimler Benz at the forefront of car development throughout the '30s, as heroes like Caracciola, Lang, Stuck, von Brauchitsch, and Rosemeyer racked up victory after victory. World War II brought it all crashing down. But by 1946, the assembly lines were running again, albeit sporadically. And in 1950, the company'produced more cars than they had ever done before; the "Wirtschaftswander" - the German economic miracle of the '50s - was underway, and MercedesBenz was in the vanguard. Once again, racing provided the impetus. A skinny unknown Argentine named Juan Manuel Fangio and a hand some British daredevil named Stirling Moss became two of the greatest Grand Prix drivers of all time, largely in Mercedes racing cars. The Le Mans disaster in 1955 - some 81 spectators were killed when Pierre Levegh's Mercedes flew into the crowd - put Daimler Benz out of racing for, a long time. With their engineering efforts focussed on road-going cars, they regained their pre-war status as the stan dard by which quality automobiles would be measured. In 1954, the company entered a neardisastrous dalliance with the rapidly declining Studebaker-Packard organiza tion, which became Mercedes' distribu tor in the United States. Daimler Benz also bought once-arch rival Auto Union, forerunner of today's Audi (sub sequently sold on to Volkswagen) and took an abortive run at BMW in 1959. Studebaker-Packard went belly-up in 1964, a new company-owned distrib utorship was established and Mercedes was finally firmly established on the North American scene. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength, with the occa sional hiccup - poor initial quality in the new Huntsville Alabama plant building the M-Class SUV; on-going digestive crises from trying to swallow the Chrysler organization. The company must have decided that the lifetime pension for Herr and Frau Benz was all the legacy they deserved - by 1937 the Benz wreath was gone from the corporate logo, and fol lowing the take-over of Chrysler, the new corporate name is DaimlerChiysler. I think it's a scandal that the man who invented the automo bile no longer has his name on the sta tionery, let alone the building. As I type, I'm in the process of seri ously considering buying a MercedesBenz. OK, so it's only a 1988 S-Class sedan with 220,000 klicks. But it's the only car with a threepointed star I could begin to think about affording. It is so well-built, there's also a chance it'll be the last car I'll ever need to buy. BACK 10 SCHOOL SP E C IA L ! Lube, O il, Filter Includes up to 5 Litres Pennzoil 10W30 oil, oil filter, check all fluid levels, check belts & hoses, chassis lube. See the professionals at Eastside for your complete automotive/ light truck maintenance and repair needs. m The Ontario government is putting a smile on the face of some of the province's 14,000 registered historical vehicle owners. From now on, vintage vehicles will be able to use licence plates issued in the same year the autos were manufactured. To be eligible for a Year of Manufacture plate, vehicles must be at least 30 years old, and remain substantially unchanged or unmodified from the manufac turer's original product. To apply for Year of Manufacture plate registration, vehicle owners must send the historic plates and the vehicle's registration permit to the Ministry of Transportation by registered mail or courier. MTO will authenticate the plates and send a letter of approval to the vehi cle's owner. The vehicle's owner may then bring the ministry's letter of approval to a local licence issuing office, and pay the permit fee of $10 and the annual valida tion fee, which is currently $74. o The plates will then be registered and can be attached to the vehicle. Year of Manufacture plates will entitle vintage vehicles to unrestricted use of the province's roads and highways throughout the year. They can also be trans ferred with a historic vehicle to its new owner. N e e d a change A r g u s 1 '95 Pontiac Grand Prix 3.1 Litres, p.mirrors, p.w., p.-t., A/C, AM/FM cassette, A b b cruise, tilt, ABS, Q 9 9 0 118,085 km. Automotive Serving Oakville for over 25 years · AC · Brakes · Suspension · Tires 1Transmission · Computerized Diagnostics '95 Ford Escort 1.9 Litres, auto, transmission, p.w, p.l, p.m., A/C, cruise, A f | f | f | | V delay wipers, a l* U | | l l 81,184 kms. Lube, Oil 8f Filter + Tire Rotation + Brake Inspection J only $2 5 . 9 5 Drive Clean Repair Centre Q .E .W . S. S E R V IC E RD. AUTO SERVICE lAFALGAR R d C/5--| -- Z m iu s £ il cc < ° a! < 573 Chartwell Rd. OAKVILLE SPEERS RD. p CORNWALL RD. (905) 844-9641 THEY'RE GOING FAST! Vehicles are plus taxes and license.. FIVE S TAR r ^ ^ 1rA A n 175 Wyecroft Road#Oakville LOLJvWOOD HTVM C H R Y S L E R (between Kerr & Dorval) 905 .845.6653 # & & & # V E H I C L E · Pence of Mind w ith DoimlerChrysler Canada Inc. backed warranty · Roadside Assistance · Quality Reconditioning · Nationwide Service Oakville's 2000 · 2001 Five Star Certified Dealership