First automobile sales fair staged in Detroit in 1899

The Detroit Auto Show goes back to the year 1899, although it was not an industry convention at the time but a sales fair for the public. It was the First National Automobile Show at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1900 which is considered to be the first American trade fair.

As is so often the case in automotive history, in Detroit, too, everything began with the enthusiasm of an individual person. Where Detroit, later to become the American capital of motor vehicles, was concerned, it was William E. Metzger. In 1896, the Detroit-based bicycle dealer visited the first motor show in England; he instantly developed great enthusiasm for the motorized vehicles and decided to sell them in his home country. And so Metzger became the first car dealer in Detroit – if not in the entire country.

In 1899, he joined forces with Fletcher Hardware Company to establish the Tri-State Sportsman’s and Automobile Association and organize an exhibition for sports equipment and automobiles in the Light Guard Armory assembly hall. The emphasis was on trophies from Africa as well as on hunting and fishing equipment, whereas the steam-powered and electrically powered vehicles displayed by Metzger were viewed rather skeptically by the 200 plus “Sportsmen”. And yet the combined exhibition was repeated in the two following years and even expanded by the addition of a dog show.

A firm place on the motor show calendar since 1989

In 1989, Detroit became a location that could no longer be ignored. Since then, the show, staged in the second and third week in January, has been named North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The Vice President of the show at the time was quoted to have said: “We will prove that this is Motor City, the world’s automotive capital. And we will bring the world’s respect back to where it belongs.”

Since then, the Detroit auto show has been accorded special significance within the motor industry. The trade fair managers quite openly court importers who, in turn, use Detroit as the stage for world premieres. As a result, NAIAS has been ranking among the Top Five of worldwide motor shows, alongside Frankfurt, Geneva, Paris and Tokyo, since 1989; meanwhile, Auto China in Beijing raised the number of the most important motor shows to six. This was confirmed by “Automotive News” in February 1993: “Other events may attract a larger number of visitors, but Detroit has become the Number One place for new-product premieres which move into the center of the international media’s attention. The show reached this status in January 1989 after the inauguration of the expanded Cobo Center.”

Since then, Mercedes-Benz, too, has been keen to show its new features and products in Detroit. In 1992, the new SEC coupe from the 140 series celebrated its world premiere here – in more ways than one. The German brand not only presented the new coupe to the international public but for the very first time launched a new car outside Europe; the European premiere followed at the Geneva Motor Show two months later.

The world’s first all-wheel-drive passenger car comes from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1907

* 100 years ago: The “Dernburg-Wagen” features all-wheel-drive and even all-wheel steering

* Highly sophisticated design by Paul Daimler

* Everyday use in the colony of German South-West Africa, today’s Namibia

The first all-wheel-drive car for everyday use was built by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1907. The “Dernburg-Wagen”, as it was known, even featured all-wheel steering. It is called after the then Secretary of State Bernhard Dernburg who drove many a kilometer in it in Africa the following year.

In fact the all-wheel-drive history of the company began slightly earlier, in 1903, when Paul Daimler laid the foundations for this technology with a first design draft. The first all-wheel-drive vehicle appeared in 1904, and was quickly followed by others. Since then, the watchword has been that all-wheel drive is the best technology when it comes to better traction and safe, assured progress. Over the decades it has been successfully used in all kinds of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, both passenger cars and commercial vehicles, and from vans to heavy-duty trucks. Some of these models, for example the G-Class or the Unimog, have gained a legendary worldwide reputation, and are to be found virtually everywhere on earth. All-wheel drive also scores heavily in day-to-day driving on normal roads, however, as the Mercedes-Benz saloons with 4MATIC demonstrate.

The Dernburg vehicle of 1907