The 30th of July 2008 marked a large footprint in the Australian sand for Mercedes, marking 50 years of the prestigious brand here on our shores and a launch of a fascinating site on the subject by Mercedes Benz Australia.

The company has come a long way since it ventured here, far far away from its home in Stuttgart, Germany. Let’s take a brief TMR look at the history of the brand ‘downunder’.

The 1950s - Import and establishment of the brand

The journey downunder started in July 30th, 1958, with the creation of Mercedes Benz Australia Pty Ltd by Germany’s successful automobile maker, Daimler Benz AG (DBAG), and Australia’s Standard Motor Products.

On our shores, Mercedes Benz cars were competing with Rovers and Jaguars from the ‘mother country’ – England - and also competing with the oversized and eye-boggling Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Dodges from Australia’s powerful ally from the war in the Pacific, General Motors in the US.

From 1953, the Canberra government set laws to the effect that any cars imported onto Australia’s soil required a new ‘import licence’. At this time, the Mercedes imported car market was very small, with an average of only 200 Mercedes cars and 50 trucks sold here each year between 1952 and 1955.

The company’s chief adviser Cheetham suggested to Mercedes that assembling Mercedes Benz vehicles here, and then selling them through Standard’s wholesale and retail operations, would make greater sense. He, and a Standard’s sales executive, Keith Horner – later to be the famously hard-lined sales manager of Ford Australia – went to Germany and secured the rights to assemble and distribute the Mercedes luxury brand in Australia.

In 1959, Standard changed its name to Australian Motor Industries (AMI), with German Mercedes engineers arriving to train Australian workers to assemble Mercedes Benz cars. Cheetham was appointed Mercedes Benz Australia’s Managing Director.

The 12th of February 1959 arrived, and the first Australian-built Mercedes Benz car, a 220 S sedan, came off the AMI line into the eager arms of the then Victorian Premier Henry Bolte, who was photographed holding its now internationally recognised three-pointed star badge.