Background and Identification

Mercedes-Benz is an automobile manufacturer of luxury vehicles and commercial vehicles headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Mercedes-Benz was the top-seller of premium vehicles in the world in 2018, having sold 2.3 million luxury passenger cars.

In 1886, Karl Benz patented the Benz Patent Motorwagen, which is known as the first automobile. Benz’s Motorwagen contained the first internal combustion engine in a car. German automobile manufacturer Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (Daimler Motors Corporation) marketed the first Mercedes automobile in 1901. Emil Jellinek, an automobile entrepreneur, named the 1901 Mercedes after his daughter. The same year, Mercedes automobiles were sold to several U.S. billionaires, including John D. Rockefeller and John Jacob Astor IV.

In 1926, the first Mercedes-Benz automobiles were manufactured after the merger of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Karl Benz’s companies. Since 1926, Mercedes-Benz has maintained a reputation for quality and endurance. In 2014, Mercedes-Benz vehicles had the lowest vehicle recall rate of any automaker. Mercedes-Benz offers a wide range of passenger and commercial vehicles, including subcompact sedans, coupes, multi-purpose vehicles, sports utility vehicles, crossovers, electric vehicles, vans, trucks, and buses.

Mercedes-Benz vehicles can be identified by the Mercedes-Benz emblem, which is usually silver and depicts a three-pointed star inside of a circle. The emblem dates back to 1934 when a Mercedes-Benz automobile competed in Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

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