| Mercedes-Benz
Karl Benz established Benz & Cie in 1871, which was the most important of his companies. Karl Benz is credited as the inventor of the first "true" automobile because the 1886 Benz motor wagon had a chassis designed from scratch (Daimler's first motorized vehicle was a horse carriage with a motor adapted to it). The Benz motor wagon was ahead of its time and by 1886 Benz introduced the first four-stroke engine. Gottlieb Daimler and his partner Wilhelm Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1890. Daimler died in 1900 and Maybach left DMG in 1907. Benz & Cie and DMG were rivals, but in 1924, due to economic hardship and the recession after World War I, the two companies contracted an "Agreement of Mutual Interest" until the year 2000. Each company still manufactured and sold their products under their own brands. Merging as one company in June 28, 1926, the firm became known as Daimler-Benz. The brand name Mercedes-Benz was established afterwards because the brand name Daimler had been licensed for use in France and the United Kingdom. Mercedes had been a previous model for DMG in 1902, and its name was taken from a race car when someone painted his daughter's name on the side of the car. Because Karl Benz experimented with automobiles early, Mercedes-Benz is also considered the world's oldest continuously produced automobile line. In 1958 Studebaker-Packard Corporation (Studebaker and Packard brand automaker) allowed Mercedes-Benz distribution through their U.S. dealership network. This mutual win lasted until Studebaker ceased US operations in 1963. Many US Studebaker dealers converted over to Mercedes-Benz dealerships and Canadian dealers were given the same option when Studebaker left the auto industry in 1966. In 1998 Daimler-Benz bought out Chrysler and the new corporation was named DaimlerChrysler AG. In 2007 the company split into the entities Daimler AG and Chrysler LLC. Selling Chrysler was considered a positive move for Daimler by its shareholders, especially since Chrysler wasn't very profitable, but Daimler does retain a 20 per cent minority stake in Chrysler. Mercedes-Benz automobiles are available at dealerships in over 130 countries and their work fleet (trucks and commercial vehicles) are available from a select group of dealers worldwide as well as the factory-direct.
http://www.mercedes-benz.com/
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