Brave new world

Nineteen forty-nine was an interesting year; communists forces gained power in China; NATO was established, and the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. It was also the year Mercedes-Benz launched two very noteworthy passenger car models.

In a post World War II backdrop, the Technical Export Fair in Hanover unveiled the 170 D, which helped make diesel engines in passenger cars socially acceptable, and the 170 S, a vehicle with outstanding ride comfort.

Originally positioned as a successor to the 170 V model, the Mercedes-Benz 170 S found itself branded a luxury class vehicle and was greeted as such by the market, if only for the limited period until the appearance of the Mercedes-Benz 220 (W 187) at the IAA International Motor Show in 1951.

The all-improved W 136 IV series was given the short arm/long arm front suspension and a modified engine with 52 hp (38 kW). These two features went beyond outstanding ride and suspension qualities and catapulted the car into the premier league of the international car world on its debut.

For the auto maker it was important to be represented with a passenger car that gave it a distinct identity, especially as the consequences of the war were still reverberating through food shortages, high unemployment, and a scarcity of raw materials. The national mood of uncertainty needed a lift.

The 170 S was a vehicle with signal effect, with the brand very deliberately demonstrating its membership of the automotive luxury class for the first time since the end of the Second World War and expressed this membership with a letter “S” in the model designation, a throwback to the initiative of Haspel, who intended others to see it as an abbreviation for special or super.

The two vehicles released at the Fair enabled Mercedes-Benz to get through the post-war years successfully, and established the basis within its passenger car portfolio for sustainable success in the decades to come.