 | | | Mercedes-Benz Celebrates 50 Years in Australia |
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Melbourne – The year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the official establishment of Mercedes-Benz in Australia.
Since its July 1958 founding, Mercedes-Benz Australia has grown from a tiny antipodean outpost to the world's 10th largest Mercedes market. In 1961 the brand sold 1481 cars and 335 trucks. This year, the company plans to sell more than 30,000 vehicles from its impressive range of premium cars, trucks, vans and buses.
“This is an important milestone in our company’s rich history,” said Wolfgang D. Schrempp, President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific.
“The last fifty years has seen not only an impressive catalogue of iconic vehicles come from our company but the establishment of a successful enterprise serving so many important customers in this part of the world.
“From heavy trucks and light vans through to the premium luxury cars the three-pointed star is famous for, Mercedes-Benz has proudly offered many solutions to the needs of the Australian market,” said Schrempp.
The following details the journey taken by the inventor of the automobile in Australia’s car industry.
THE 1950s – A COLLABORATIVE VISION
The corporate journey taken by Mercedes-Benz began with the 30 July 1958 creation of Mercedes-Benz Australia Pty Ltd by Germany’s Daimler Benz AG and Australia’s Standard Motor Products.
Think of Mercedes-Benz today and images of a sleek car cruising along a chic city street or a winding coastal road spring to mind. But when the company was founded here 50 years ago, in an economy 'riding on the sheep’s back' and major infrastructure projects, the brand was being largely experienced by farmers and truck drivers. The first national dealers meeting, in 1954, were for truck dealers.
From 1953, importing a car from overseas required an import licence from Canberra. The imported car market was small. Between 1952 and 1955 an average of only 200 Mercedes cars and 50 trucks were sold each year.
World War II had only ended in 1945; rationing didn’t really end until 1948. There was residual resentment towards German cars, as there would be in the 1960s with the first Japanese cars. By 1955 the only prestige German cars on the market, apart from Mercedes-Benz and Porsches, were from Borgward. Other German marques such as DKW, Goggomobil, Goliath, Lloyd, NSU and Opel were available but in small numbers.
Mercedes-Benz cars were competing with Jaguars and Rovers from England – Australia's 'mother country' – and with the eye-boggling Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Dodges from Australia’s emerging ally, the US. |
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