The Mercedes 170V

By Bernd S. Koehling

The 170V W136, launched in 1947, was the desperate attempt by Daimler-Benz to step out of the ruins of WWII. Based on a 1936 design, it earned the company sufficient funds to later build cars such as the 300 Adenauer or 300SL. Fully revised in March 2016, this book covers the car's complete history. It explains in detail the chassis number and data card and looks at a downsized version of it in connection with Auto-Union (Audi). Like all books by the author it comes superbly illustrated with many recent color photos. If you want to know more about the 170V or the Auto-Union connection, then this book will interest you.

With over 25 books and e-books written about Mercedes-Benz cars, Bernd S. Koehling has proven to be an authority on the brand. Those books cover cars from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL R231.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bernd S. Koehling
• Release date: Nov 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465721488

Bernd S. Koehling

With over 25 books and e-books written about Mercedes-Benz cars, Bernd S. Koehling has proven to be an authority on the brand. Those books cover cars from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL R231. Bernd has been involved in the Mercedes scene since the early 1970s, when he restored his first 170 Cabrio B. Since then he has not only owned many classic Mercedes including a 220S, 300d Adenauer, 200D, 250SE, 280SE coupe 3.5, 300SEL, 350SL, 280E, 450SE, SLK230, he has also gained a wealth of knowledge and experience, which he shares with his readers in his books. Bernd has always considered Mercedes one of his favorite car manufacturers and has driven almost all Mercedes models built since the 1950s. His other weakness revolves around British cars, here especially Jaguar and Alvis. If you would like to know more about Bernd's books or want to read his blog with selected Mercedes stories, why don't you visit his website: benz-books.com

Book preview

MERCEDES - BENZ

The Mercedes 170V

Sedan, OTP, Wagon W136

1947 – 1953

and

The Mercedes compact

The first C-Class Attempt W122, W118, W119

1947 – 1960

By Bernd S. Koehling

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Bernd S. Koehling

All rights reserved

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CONTENT

Foreword

The Cars

170V W136 (1947 – 1953)

Starting from scratch

The 170V

The 170Va

The diesel

The 170Vb and Db

The OTP police car

The coachbuilders

The sales performance

Experiencing the 170V

170 compact W122, W118, 119 (1947 – 1960)

The first attempts to design a C-Class

The Audi connection

Technical chapters

The chassis number explained

The data card explained

Technical specifications

Production figures

About the author

One last thing

FOREWORD

First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It is part of an e-book series that covers all cars produced by Daimler-Benz during the 1950s and 1960s.

Just two years after the war the time was still extremely difficult for Daimler-Benz, as it slowly started to develop the business. The 170V, introduced in 1936 as a car for the upper middle class, was now the only car the company had on offer. Most of the plant had been destroyed, only the steel press for the 170V had survived. Daimler-Benz, known for its luxury cars, had no choice but to sell this car as a luxury car, competing directly with six-cylinder vehicles such as the Opel Kapitän.

Horsepower was in those early years not a deciding factor, so the 38 hp of the 170V were not seen as detrimental to its high price tag. It was more the quality and image that helped making the car so popular. Just one year after production had started it took some 16 to 18 months, before a new buyer could have his car delivered. The major reason was not lack of production capacity, but lack of electricity, coal and steel.

When the 170V was finally stopped in 1953, the world had changed completely and a car like the 180 ponton helped to secure the further growth of Daimler-Benz. But the 170V had been instrumental for the company’s very survival.

A project that started at the same time, but lived with interruptions until 1960, was a pet project of far sighted chief engineer and member of the executive board Fritz Nallinger. He felt that in order to gain critical mass in production, Daimler-Benz needed a car cheaper and slightly smaller than the 170V. Such ideas came up in 1947, 1950, 1956 and again in 1960 and they had in the later stage a lot to do with a company that very few today associate with Mercedes: Audi.

Fully revised in 2016, this guide explains in detail the chassis number and data card, which was naturally in the early 1950s still not very detailed. That is why it also gives an outlook of how this card evolved over the next couple of years. The chapter ends with a description of a data card that was used in the early 1960s. This is of course not anymore related to the 170V, but I just wanted to give the you a bit more information on this interesting subject.

If you are interested, this e-book is also available in a printed version as part of the book: MERCEDES-BENZ, The 1950s, Volume 1. It covers next to the 170V the 170S, 220, 300 Adenauer and 300S models. Further details can be found on my website.

March 2016

Bernd S. Koehling

MB 170V W136 I (1947 – 1950)

MB 170D W136 ID (1949 – 1950)

MB 170V W136 VI (1950 – 1953)

MB 170D W136 VID (1950 – 1953)

Starting from scratch

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Just a bit of chrome, no white walls, no frills. that's the way they were and that's the way many are today

In order to understand the automotive world in Europe of the late 1940s, early 1950s, one has to get a feeling for the time, when the cars were produced. It was vastly different from North America, where the big Three could throw almost anything at a car-hungry public that had been deprived of new cars for over four years. Although the war was already over for two years, European manufacturers still faced serious supply shortages in 1947 and many cities