Are the current Mercedes bad? No, not at all. Are they clearly better than their competitors? Well, of course not, or not always. But there was a time when it was like that, a time when the quality of Mercedes cars could be said to be above their competition. Become a member of this channel to enjoy benefits: / airtight garage Before starting, I insist on one thing: The current Mercedes are very good cars and highly recommended. In addition, the brand has managed to “rejuvenate” its clientele, because at least in Spain there was a time when having a Mercedes was typical of elderly gentlemen, sometimes rich and sometimes, nouveau riche. The brand has been rejuvenated… but it is no longer a brand that surpasses all others in terms of manufacturing quality and reliability… And when did Mercedes stop being true Mercedes? Bertha Benz The relationship of the Mercedes brand with women is curious. And I will explain it to you. The first automobile in history is considered to be the Benz tricycle, patented on January 29, 1886. It had a 954 cm3, 0.74 hp combustion engine and had an astonishing top speed of 16 km/h. Bertha Benz made her first long car trip, 104 km with her two children and completely unaware of her husband Karl Benz. The truth is that Mrs. Bertha Benz gave her husband's company the best possible publicity. Two in one. In the early days of the automobile industry there were two very prominent German brands: D Cannstatt Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (founded in 1890) and Mannheim Benz&Co (founded in 1883), respectively the brands of Karl Benz and Gottlieb #Daimler. But at the beginning of the 20th century, Mr. Emil Jellinek, a wealthy Austro-Hungarian, diplomat and businessman, came on the scene. He did a lot for the brand… even giving it its name. Why Mercedes? Emil Jellinek was not a bad driver and in fact won the race from Nice to Magnanone with a Phoenix car, and made the brand known throughout the world. But soon after, he came into contact with Daimler Benz and really liked the cars they made. And he made them an irresistible offer: to buy practically all of Daimler's production in exchange for being the exclusive distributor in Austria, Hungary, France, Belgium and the USA. But there was one more condition: the name Mercedes. His daughter was called that and his many properties had that name. Mercedes and the war. Mercedes was dedicated to manufacturing almost everything, especially luxury cars. And when Hitler came to power, the relationship between the brand and Nazism was absolute, to the point of using Jews as slaves in its factories. Das Beste oder nichts. These words in German are the brand's motto: "The best or nothing." And I think they perfectly represent the models that Mercedes began to manufacture once the hardships of the war and the post-war period were over. The "secret" of Mercedes. And, as I was saying, between the 60s, after the post-war period, and the early 90s, Mercedes offered a level of technology, quality and reliability far above average. And what is the truth? Simple: Mercedes models had a long life. European rivals "restyled" their cars every 2 or 3 years and replaced them with new models every 4 or 5. And what was Mercedes doing in the meantime? Well, they replaced their models with new ones every 7, 8 and even more than 10 years. And what is the advantage? Many. The first, Mercedes took their time to develop cars, it was by far the brand that did the most prior tests before launching a car on the market. And as for the famous “restylings” or “facelifts”, either they didn’t exist or they were minimal. And this was an important advantage for Mercedes owners: The resale price was very good, because they were high quality cars, generally well maintained and well cared for, and even though they were years old, they didn’t look old. Some examples. I’m going to talk about the Mercedes W114, for people born in the 60s and 70s, we could say that it is “the Mercedes of a lifetime”. It appeared in 1968 and lasted almost 9 years in the catalogue and even today, you don’t see an “old” car. Something similar happened to the more modern W123, which appeared in 1975 and had a long life of 11 years. You still see many of them on the road. But there comes a turning point that I associate with three cars, the Mercedes S-Class W140 from 1992, which was on sale for only 5 years and for me you could say it was the last of its kind, and with the arrival of the Mercedes SLK which appeared in 1994 and the Mercedes A-Class from 1997. And now, what? I am not going to be the one to say whether Mercedes was wrong or not, because one thing is what a fan thinks or feels and another, more important, is the profit and loss account. But some, myself included, miss when Mercedes were authentic Mercedes.