News Article

Mercedes Benz with its beautiful designs and precision engineering is in many ways representative of the great achievements of the German motor industry. However it has not always been plain sailing for Mercedes, they have gone through some very difficult times; one such occasion was quite recently, when there were so many concerns about Mercedes reliability that contract hire and leasing companies were reluctant to recommend Mercedes. There was some evidence of contract hire brokers switching potential Mercedes buyers into other marques, such as BMW and Audi. The Mercedes model that was most criticized in the motoring press was the M Class.

In a survey carried out by The Consumer Association in 2003, Mercedes was downgraded by two categories, from best to average in reliability. Although to be fair all the German manufacturers came in for criticism, they said, “No major German marques have escaped the steady decline we have noticed in recent years”. Interestingly the manufacturer that received the most complaints from those surveyed was Volkswagen.

The BBC’s Top Gear carried out a survey in 2004; in which they placed the M Class last out of 142 cars surveyed. Since then Mercedes have been making great efforts to restore their good name and reputation and to once again have the Mercedes Benz name associated with high build quality and reliabilty.

What became known as the world’s first car was patented by Karl Benz in 1886. Benz was based in the town of Mannheim, he called his car the Benz Patent Motorwagen. It had just three wheels similar in width to today’s bycycle wheels. The ride was bumpy and the passengers were as exposed as much to the elements, as if they were riding a bicycle. Driving at night would have been hazardous, as there were no light on the vehicle.

In the meantime a gentleman by the name of Gottleib Daimler along with William Maybach were also busy inventing a car powered by an internal combustion engine. The vehicle was called the Daimler Riding car. The engine had an upright cylinder from which it derived its name the Grandfather Clock. Daimler called his vehicle a car but it was in fact a motorcycle, the worlds first. With its one cylinder, its speed at full throttle was 13 Kilometres an hour. Neither Benz or Daimler knew of the other’s work, even although they were only working about 100 Kilometres from each other.

During 1886 Daimler and Maybach launched their Motorised Carraige, again they installed their Grandfather clock engine which was referred to as high-speed, the top speed was about 18 kilometres per hour, although compared to walking it was high-speed. It was the world’s first four wheel car; although Karl Benz had patented his car in the same year, his was a three wheel vehicle. During 1889 Daimler exhibited another car that became known as the wire wheel car, at an exhibition in Paris. It certainly attracted a lot of attention, it is said that seeing this vehicle, is what started the French motor industry.

In 1890’s Karl Benz was building two, three and four seater vehicles but now with four wheels. He had developed the steering system so that the two front wheels could turn on a different radius, making the car much more stable.

Benz developed the two seater Velocipide in 1894, it had two seats and was capable of 20 KPH. He sold a large number; some 1200, which in those days was a considerable number. He had less success with his motorized bus; roads were still in poor condition, this combined with the vehicle’s narrow wheels made it quite impractical. It had probably not occurred to anyone at the time, that wider wheels would have made a big difference.

A two cylinder belt driven car was brought out by Daimler in 1896. The two cylinders didn’t help much with it’s top speed, which was 18 mph. The world’s first truck was produced byDaimler, it was a flat bed truck. The fact that it was only capable of 11 Kilometres per hour, didn’t stop it being very popular, they were used mainly for deliveries, even Britain imported some of these vehicles. Daimler launced a new goods vehicle, it could transport loads of 500 Kilograms. It was similar in appearance to one of the covered, dome shaped, horse drawn wagons from the days of the wild west.

The Dos a Dos car was launched by Benz in 1899 had a strange seat configuration; it had four seats two would face the rear of the vehicle and two the front. It was however fast at over 35 Kilometres per hour.

In 1990 Daimler died, leaving control of his company to Wilhem Maybach. Emil Jellinek a highly successful businessman and motor racing driver had been pressing Maybach to produce cars that were more modern and faster. Jellinek asked Maybach to name the cars after his daughter Mercedes and this was the start of the Mercedes car.

A number of more modern and faster car were produced by Daimler, in the early 1900’s. There was the 40 horsepower Mercedes Simplex that suceeded the 35 horsepower model. It was a single seater car with a top speed of 80 Kilometres per hour by now the car had 4 cylinders. One of these models is believed to be the oldest Mercedes still in existence.

In 1905 Benz produced the 18 hp Double Phaeton and two years later the 75 horsepower Mercedes Double Phaeton was launched. It had 6 cylinders and was really very fast indeed at over 94 kph. Both Benz and Daimler started to do well in motor racing.

During the First World War both Benz and Daimler’s production were converted into producing materials for the war effort. The German economy suffered badly at the end of the war, there was a shortage of fuel and a heavy luxury tax had been placed on car production, inflation was starting to get out of control. The cost of a car became so high it was out of most people’s reach. A far cry from today where a luxury Mercedes can be found on contract hire from around 300 per month.

It is said that in 1924 Daimler made an approach to Benz and proposed a merger but it did not go ahead. However during 1924 economic conditions were taking their toll on both companies and a merger agreement was signed by the parties and was finalized in 1926.

After the war Mercedes launched a sports car, it had two seats and a supercharged engine, the top speed was impressive at over 108kph. In 1927 Mercedes Benz then produced a touring car; they called it the Model S, the Model S was even faster at 160 kph. At the time it was hard to imagine that greater speeds could be achieved but one year later the SSK Sports was launched. It seems strange that it was specifically produced for hill climb racing, because one would have thought that that was quite a limited market. It had an extraordinary top speed approaching 200 kph.

The model 550K was launched by Mercedes Benz in 1934. There was a version called The Special Roadster, the maximum speed was 160 kph. It was a spectacular looking vehicle that most people even today would consider to be an elegant and beautiful car. At the time the car cost 28,000 Marks, which was a considerable amount of money.

The 540K was introduced out as the successor to the 500. It looked very similar but was faster at around 170 kph. Mercedes also launched the Mercedes Benz 770 a luxurious limousine in which many of Germany’s top industrialists would be chauffeured. The numbers of each model that were produced was low in those days; only around 120 of this model were manufactured and even in the case of the 540K, less than 120 were made.

It was claimed that during the Second Word War Mercedes used prisoners of war and forced labour to work in their factories. All German motor manufacturers were required to help in the German war effort, as indeed were the British carmakers. The German motor manufacturing plants were prime targets for the allies, as of course were our car manufacturers for the Germans. Both were producing military vehicles. There was virtually nothing left of Mercedes at the end of the war, their factories and machinery had been destroyed and there were virtually no raw materials, with which to work. In spite of all this Mercedes still managed to start producing cars again in 1948. They launched the 300 saloon in 1951 and sold more than 4500 of this model. The 300S convertible was also launched; things were improving for Mercedes.

The motoring world didn’t quite know what had hit them, when the two door hardtop Mercedes Gull Wing was launched in the 1950s. It had two doors that opened up which did indeed look very much like gull’s wings. It was by any standards an amazing design. It cost $10,000 in The United States, which was a considerable amount of money; nevertheless they were highly popular and a great deal were sold. A Gull Wing Mercedes was sold at auction during 2006 for $777,240 Australian Dollars approximately $715,000 American Dollars. 1957 saw the launch of the Mercedes 300 SL; Americans bought a considerable number of the 300 SL. It was fast, reaching almost 250 kph, which is over 150 mph.

As long ago as the 1960s Mercedes were carrying out quite sophisticated vehicle testing, sophisticated that is, for those times. It is hard to imagine in today’s world of high technology that the system they used for transmitting data from the test vehicle to another vehicle that gathered the information was a long cable, running between the two cars. Clearly it was important for both vehicles to drive at the same speed.

During 1963 Mercedes Benz launched the 230SL, the first sports car to have a crumple free zone. It was not particularly fast compared with some of the previous models; it had a top speed of less than 200 Kilometres per hour. It was however hugely popular selling, nearly 20,000 models. Mercedes had come a long way from the days when they were making just a few hundred of each model. In 1978 Mercedes Benz introduced anti lock brakes (ABS). In 1981 they were the first manufacturer to introduce the airbag. One can only speculate on the number of lives and serious injuries, those safety features will have saved over the years.

The 190E came out in 1982 and in 11 years sold an incredible 638,000.Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Mercedes continued to sell large numbers of cars and in 1998 Daimler Benz merged with The Chrysler Corporation, effectively a takeover by Daimler Benz and formed Daimler Chrysler. It was not a success and in 2007 Daimler sold 80.1% of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 Billion, having initially invested $36 billion in 1998.

Mercedes are now paying a great deal of attention to getting their build quality right and in a relatively short period of time have gone a long way to restoring their reputation and good name. Contract hire companies are once again happy to recommend Mercedes Benz and soon expect them, quite deservedly, to be once again categorised as best for reliability.

Should you have any queries or questions with regard to Licence checking, Fleet Management, Contract Hire, Personal Contract Hire, Lease Purchase or vehicle Hire Purchase, please do not hesitate to contact us. Bowater Price plc 01494 536 536. www.bowaterprice.com.

Any donation you make to help out a worthy cause can also help you with your taxes. If you have an old car parked in your garage and you don?t know what to do with it, car donation is a wonderful way to help a charity. Although the car donation laws have changed, this is still a good way to help yourself and others too.

Determine the value of your used car. Although the blue book might help you determine the value of your car, you should read IRS Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property (available on the IRS’s website), to see what your car really worth.

Under the January 2005 rules, your tax break is based on how the charity uses the donated vehicle. If the car is sold, the gross sale price can be deducted. If the charity uses the donated car following the new law for ?significant? charity work that is tax approved, you?ll be able to deduct the market value of the vehicle. However, some stiff penalties will be charged for falsified documents. The law is watching carefully those charities not following the rules and regulations involved with car donation.

Make your donation. After you have made the donation, make sure to ask for a written acknowledgement from the charity. You will need to attach this acknowledgement to your tax return in order to get your tax deduction.

If you do decide to pursue car donation, you will find out that the process is easy. You can contact most charities by phone or online. It is important to ask the charity you wish to get involved with for some specific and important information. This is necessary in order to avoid complications and also be sure you understand the process. It?s not hard, but does require you to fill out some important information and get the car ready.

With the way the gas tariff keeps raising, it’s important to know how to save gas. There are painless methods of saving gas unlike what so many people thought.

First and foremost, make sure you consult the experts like Gas Buddy for help before you go ahead to buy gas in your neighbourhood. Gas Buddy is a site responsible for compiling gas prices from stations all over the country. You can find the most economical stations in any city. At the end of the day all the 25 cents saved on gallons when put together will make up quite a lot of money.

If you also want to save gas, you shouldn’t overlook regular maintenance of your car. Be sure to change the oil, the air filters and make sure the car’s engine is always tuned to help you save money and keep the car in perfect condition. An effective way of saving gas is by maintaining your car properly.

Also, the car air conditioning shouldn’t be made to work always. Whenever you are driving and using the air conditioner, you are using lots of gas. The way you use air conditioning should be determined by the type of weather.

Bear it in mind that you can also save gas by adopting the water car technology. Several vehicle owners wish to possess this water car technology because it is very easy to work with.

To begin with, do your homework about this water and gas technology and discover ways to save gas through it. It’s a good thing that you won’t pay to get the facts online. If you come across information about 100% water technologies for your car, just ignore it. Just imagine how expensive and complicated such technology will be.

For die-hard fans of off-road racing, the word “Ironman” doesn’t conjure images of Robert Downey, Jr in a tight metal suit, or Stan Lee, who created the Ironman comic series. They’ll think of Ivan Stewart, whose legendary career has earned him the nickname of “Ironman.”

Stewart caught off-road racing’s attention in 1973 at the Ensenada 300 when his co-driver broke his leg before the race. Stewart recruited mechanic Earl Stah to drive shotgun in the Class 2 buggy, and powered through all 300 miles of the gruelling terrain to claim first place.

After almost 30 wins in 10 years, Stewart has joined the Toyota factory-sponsored team. In those 10 years, he moved up from Class 2 and won the Baja 100. Twice, he was the SCORE Driver of the Year, and the winner of the Baja 500.

Stewart kept his winning tradition behind the wheel of Toyota-powered, Precision Preparation Inc. Motorsports-built race trucks, where he won six class victories, including two SCORE World Championships. By the 1980s, the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG) had moved its events from the desert into the stadium, meaning new venues for Stewart/Toyota triumphs, and making off-road racing more popular and accessible than ever. With 17 wins, Stewart is the record holder for all-time MTEG wins.

Stewart’s seventh year with Toyota was a lucky one. 1990 was the year Stewart won award after award, including: SCORE and High Desert Racing Association (HDRA) Driver of the Year; Overall Driver’s Champion; Unlimited Class Driver’s Champion and Grand National Sport Truck Driver’s Champion. In addition, he earned a total 11 wins along the way. In 1993, he repeated his SCORE Overall and Unlimited Class championships, and led Toyota to its first Baja 1000 victory. That season marked the first year that one manufacturer won all three of the Crown Jewels of desert racing - the Baja 500, Baja 1000, and Nevada 400 - and Stewart was a driving force in that winning team.

Stewart won the San Felipe 250, Baja 500 and Fireworks 250 in 1994, when he moved up to the Trophy Truck Class. He was named Trophy-Truck Class Driver’s Champion, and added victories in the Laughlin Challenge and Parker 400 to his repertoire. In the last three years of his career, Stewart won three more Baja 500 races for a total of 17 in his career, and one more Baja 1000 for a career total of three. After over a quarter-century of racing, the Ironman had won over 84 titles and 10 driver’s championships.

Stewart is now retired from racing, but he has maintained a high profile in the sport on two levels. First is as founder of the Protruck Racing Organization, a special class of spec trucks that participates at off-road events including the “Best in the Desert” Vegas to Reno run, the Baja 500, and the Pikes Peak hill climb. The series is a true driver’s challenge with all the Protrucks incorporating the same components, and engine size limited to 360 cubic inches. Next, Stewart moved from real dirt to virtual dirt with his Super Off-Road arcade game developed for Nintendo and Sega and the Off-Road Challenge, released by Midway Home Entertainment and based on the SCORE desert series. All hail the Ironman - the greatest Toyota Tundra driver ever!

Gas prices have skyrocketed over the last year. In fact, they have more than doubled in just the last two decades and that has caused a real strain on most American families. A recent poll conducted by the Associated Press found that about 90% of respondents said the high gas prices were causing them financial difficulties.

Why do so many people continue to doubt the effectiveness of this alternative? Well, there are a few reasons.

Getting Started with the Conversion

Think about it. The local news in most cities will spend five minutes detailing the private life of an American Idol contestant but won’t talk about the problem of rising fuel prices unless it’s a mention of how much they’ve increased since the day before.

First, you need to understand how this works and that means eliminating a couple of misconceptions people have about this technology. For one, water isn’t the sole fuel for your car even when you convert it to this alternative system. Instead, your car basically becomes a hybrid.

What happens is that the gasoline in your car ends up fueling the process that makes the water useful to your engine. You see, a molecule of water is made up of atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be converted into energy for your car but only when it is separated from the oxygen through electricity. The gas provides the electricity to make this separation and to allow the hydrogen to fuel your vehicle.

Benefits of Changing to Water Power

There are lots of good reasons to make this change as soon as possible. For one, you could cut your fuel costs by as much as 50%. That means instead of spending $40 a week to fill up your car, you’ll only spend $20 or even less. That’s definitely a benefit because it will leave you with more money for the other expenses you want.

When you’re using water as the chief source of fuel, however, the only thing spewed into the air from your car is water vapor. Water vapor is what makes the clouds - it’s perfectly harmless to human health.

Another huge benefit is that as more people switch to water fuel the cost of gasoline will keep going down. When demand drops so will prices.

Many drivers are unsure whether they should use synthetic oil in their new cars. Synthetic oil has a number of pluses over regular oil: it can maintain integrity in heat; lubricates better; has fairly good purity; and rarely ever becomes sludge, even after abuse. Most drivers will see the obvious benefits synthetic oil has to offer and decide to use it in their car. However, even with the synthetic oil’s numerous benefits, the real difference is made in how you care for your car.

To start with, do you change your oil regularly? Oil needs to be changed before it breaks down and puts your engine at risk. But if you’re good at changing your oil on time every 3-5k miles, you’ll never experience one of the benefits of synthetic oil. Synthetic is resistant to breaking down, even after extended use. For instance, if you forget an oil change, or even if you just put one off for a few weeks, synthetic is the best oil to have in your engine. But if you’re changing your oil regularly and at the proper mileage, you’ll never be in a situation where your engine is at risk from worn-out oil.

One of synthetic oil’s biggest perks is that it doesn’t deteriorate until after a long time. Regular oil starts to break down after 6 months, and all oils should be replaced after 5K miles. If you’re someone who drives less than 5K every 6 months, then mileage-wise, you’re replacing your oil more often than you need to. Using synthetic oil will let you change your oil less frequently, so you can get greater mileage out of each oil change. This might save you some money, and definitely will save you on time.

Other than synthetic’s breakdown resistance and long life, there’s one other common reason you should consider using synthetic. As natural oil gets hot, it starts to breakdown. The longer it stays hot, the worse the breakdown. So if you regularly operate your vehicle in such a way that the engine temperature is always high, you should run synthetic. Letting your vehicle idle for hours at a time, such as on a jobsite, will overheat the engine. So will driving in high ambient temperatures, like in the desert, or altitudes of over 10k feet. As a rule, high temperature desert air doesn’t cool your engine very well, and neither does “thin” mountain air. If you live in these areas, consider running synthetic oil. Finally, synthetic oil is often used in high performance vehicles. If you are utilizing your vehicle like a high-performance car (high speeds, fast turns, you know who you are) then synthetic is a smart choice.

There are a lot of entities that recommend using synthetic oil, even to people who don’t need it. For example, synthetic is recommended for anyone that drives in stop-and-go traffic. But since all of us drive in stop-and-go at some point, that’s a bad recommendation. You should only use synthetic if you’re driving in stop and go traffic long enough that your engine’s cooling fan turns on, and only if you’re doing so daily. Also, if you only drive short trips, people may recommend synthetic oil as a way to protect your engine. However, short trips, regardless of your choice of oil, can damage your motor. No matter whether you use synthetic or regular oil, your engine was designed run for at least 20 minutes. Running synthetic in these situations might be better, but tests have shown that the benefit is minor.

If you determine that one of the above situations applies to you, take care when you purchase synthetic oil. Many places will suggest a synthetic blend as a way to save money (instead of full-synthetic), but the “blend” is oftentimes a mystery. Maybe you’re getting a 50-50 blend, or maybe you’re getting 1% synthetic and 99% regular oil. My recommendation is to go full synthetic or not bother with it - unless the blend suggested is provided and produced by your vehicle’s manufacturer.

You might be wondering what your vehicle manufacturer recommends for your vehicle. Most manufacturers will say that “any oil that meets API standard specifications can be used in your vehicle.” So normal is perfectly alright for most situations. Drivers will usually enjoy great performance from their new cars for a long time even without the extra benefit of synthetic oil, so long as they take proper care of their vehicles.

Do you know that your vehicle is very poorly designed? Oh, it may have a beautiful shape and finish, but it doesn’t utilize energy well. In other words, you won’t get better gas mileage without some help!

About a quarter of the power in gasoline is used for actually moving your vehicle. The rest becomes heat, vibration, deposits, which wear down the engine, and emissions. In other words, about 75% of what you pay for fuel is wasted!

You’ve heard about hybrids but do you really know much about them? On the road they’re still regular, inefficient cars even though they use multiple sources of energy. They may be sleeker and more aerodynamic, but so are many other cars.

Hybrids are a good step forward if you can afford them, but there is so much experimentation going on right now. How do you know which hybrid to choose to ensure you get better gas mileage.

One solution could be to convert your existing car to a full electric engine. There actually are conversion kits available from several companies. Very costly and I really do have a better answer.

It’s very inexpensive to just convert your existing auto to become a water hybrid vehicle. You can leave your engine intact and add a small conversion kit that will vastly improve your gas mileage. This is done using hydrogen in water to boost the output of energy. It’s not rocket science. In fact, it’s very easy to do!

The cheapest and easiest hybrid system, you can actually build yourself, will decrease fuel consumption up to 50% or more. It’s also a technology that reduces pollution. And, your engine will be cleaned as it reduces corrosive internal buildup. Even old engines purr again after installing this solution.

When you become skilled at creating this easy add-on for your car or truck, you’ll get better gas mileage and, if you like making money too, you can help others add these systems to their cars or trucks as well. Your friends will love you and your next customer is just around the corner!

Learn how to create a device that utilizes a small amount of electricity from your car’s battery to create a gas from the hydrogen molecules in water called HHO (2 Hydrogen + 1 Oxygen). HHO, also referred to as Hydroxy or Hydrogen*Oxygen, provides much cleaner energy - and the end product is simply water!

If you read Mobile Magazine you may have read that HHO provides the atomic power of hydrogen while preserving the chemical stability of water. Pound for pound HHO gas is 3 times more powerful than gasoline! HHO can increase gas mileage and boost performance in your car or truck.

This suppressed technology, that’s been around for about 90 years, has been simplified. Affordable but very effective units are available now. They come with authorization to replicate the apparatus and include complete instructions! Installation and maintenance are very easy and it’s good for gas or diesel as well as carburettors or fuel injection. The units work on older and new vehicles, light trucks, boats, big rigs and more.

People always consider donating money a great way to help a worthy cause. Cars that are not being used make good donations, enabling many less fortunate people to have a means of transportation.

You can help many different charitable organizations by a car donation. If you know or love someone who has cancer, then you can make a car donation to a specific cancer organization, or you can contact the American Cancer Society, who will be more than glad to take that car you are looking to get rid of off of your hands.

All you have to do is find a car donation service, have them pick up your old car for free even if it is not running, then they will fix up your car for free (or sell the parts for charity), and either donate the car directly to a charity or sell your car or car parts with the proceeds going towards a great charity. You can even choose the charity you want in some cases.

When you decide to do a car donation you can feel good that you are doing something to help others and in some cases you can also get a tax write-off for car donation. You can find many sites on the internet that are dedicated to connecting people who are looking to get rid of old cars and those organizations that can definitely use such a wondrous gift.

With great tax benefits and a great feeling that you are doing something good, making a car donation is a great option. Just remember, when you want to remove your old car, a car donation is a great choice to get that done.

Hundreds of charities have begun to adopt car donation programs as a way to raise funds or to provide themselves with no-cost vehicles to help operate their programs. But rather than managing the car donation programs themselves, they will often turn to fundraising organizations to actually handle the donation and auctioning of the vehicles. And that policy can mean a problem for you.

Finding a car donation program should be fairly easy as there are many charities that set up this kind of donation. Many charities will come to your home and remove your old car with no out of pocket expense to you. There are very little restrictions when you look for a car donation program to utilize your old car for the good of others. Most charities that run a car donation program only require that you have four inflated tires.

The IRS itself, in recent years, has become alarmed at the proliferation of car donation programs run by fundraisers which end up keeping the bulk of the proceeds they receive for donated cars. The IRS recommends that it you are considering any of the car donation programs, you contact the people running it and get a clear answer as to whether they are charity officials, or private group acting for the charity.

You can find so many different charities that target different groups to help. You can choose a charity that has meaning in some way for you. If you have lost someone to the ravaging disease of cancer you can donate your used car to a cancer research car donation program. Within the cancer research community you will find many specific car donation programs too.

If your interest lies with wildlife, you can find a car donation program that caters to reintroducing animals back into the wild. Your car can fund a rehabilitation program for abandoned or abused animals. Think how good that can make you feel.

Donating your car to charity is perhaps one of the wisest decisions you can make if you want to dispose of an old property. It saves you a lot of the work and the worries of selling a property. This is especially so if you course your donation through a car donation services company.

One important factor is location. Is the car donation services company able to serve you no matter where you and your charity are located? Some companies have nationwide presence, and have no issues facilitating this for you.

There are a number of companies worldwide which help a donor donate his car with the least amount of trouble. The donor can either call these organizations on their toll free number or he can donate by filling an online application form.

American Red Cross of Central New Jersey is one such car donation company. Charity Auto Donations and The New Community Corporation are other such car donation companies. The donor is relieved of all the difficulties that come along with donation. The car donation company arranges for the pick up of the donated car. It is towed away free of charge by a reliable and licensed towing company. This is done at a time and place convenient to the donor. Some companies arrange for towing even if the donor is in another state. The title to the car is required when donating but if it is not available, the company again makes some arrangement for this. Companies also help in estimating the value of the car after all the necessary information is furnished to them regarding the condition, make, and mileage of the car.

Car donation companies assist the donors with all the paper work involved in the donation. Donation of an old undrivable car is a hassle free solution to get rid of the car and at the same time do some good by helping someone.