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USA Daimler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
USA Daimler was an American automaker company, from 1888 to 1907, based in New York City. It was a subsidiary of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft of Germany the world's first multinational automobile company.
The American industrialist William Steinway was a descendant of the German piano making family. In 1876, he crossed the Atlantic to visit Daimler and Maybach and see their inventions and as a result of this entered into a licensing agreement.
On September 29, 1888 Steinway opened Daimler 's USA subsidiary in Long Island, New York as the Daimler Motor Co., selling engines made by the National Machine Company of Hartford, Connecticut, who had been in production since 1891. USA-Daimler started making their own automobile and stationary engines in 1895 followed later the same year by complete automobiles.
Steinway confidently explained to the press: "The fuel, petroleum, costs about one cent per hp and hour, making the automobile considerably less expensive than horse power. We already had a horseless vehicle here in 1893 but it was too lightly built for the rough cobblestone streets we have in this country”.
Following Steinway's early death in 1896, his heirs weren't convinced about the project and sold all their shares to the General Electric Company in 1898. The factory was renamed Daimler Manufacturing Company and produced light trucks as well as cars.
The United States had been the best export market for the German company taking 25% of the output in 1904 with examples sold to the Vanderbilt and Astor families, and in January 1905 the locally constructed American-Mercedes, based on the European Mercedes 45 hp was shown at New York's National Automobile Show. The car featured a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h) a 4 cylinder engine of 6.8 liters displacement and four speed transmission.
In the same month H. L. Bowden established a speed record of 110 mph (175 km/h) average over a mile, with flying start in a car with a double Mercedes 60 hp engine at Daytona Beach, Florida.
The brand stood out in the automobile market with Mercedes advertising stating: "If you want the best, of course you want a foreign car... Mercedes is the car for speed, power and noiseless running. It is the acme of reliability.”
The first unit was sold in 1906, painted red, but success was short lived as in 1907 a fire destroyed eight completed Mercedes, plus 40 other under construction and the factory closed.