The car of tomorrow (back then)
05/24/2016
Throughout the history of the automobile, the view was repeatedly expressed that the car had actually been invented and that there was hardly anything new to come. This was already the case in the 1920s, but also at the end of the 1950s.
Back then, a certain Willi Wieczorek wrote a one-page article in ADAC Motorwelt entitled "The car of tomorrow". And referred to the Mercedes-Benz 220 SEb. Among other things, it said:
"One day the dream car will come" this is the standard sentence of every critic when once again faced with a new model that failed to meet expectations. Dream cars are supposed to anticipate the conscious and unconscious wishes of the public and test their industrial feasibility.
Daimler-Benz has now presented such a dream car to the public in the new models of the 2.2-liter sedan with the six-cylinder 220, 220 S and 220 SE. This new design from Untertürkheim really is - as press officer Artur J. Keser put it in his apt bon mot - "the car of tomorrow - unfortunately still on our roads of yesterday".
In his article, Wieczorek was full of praise for the new saloon and apparently could hardly imagine any improvements. He wrote:
"We could go on to describe many more details about this new, above-average comfort Mercedes car, but we don't want to pre-empt the detailed test report, which everyone is awaiting with great interest, that ADAC Motorwelt will already be publishing in the next issue. We had the opportunity to drive the new 220 models on the closed-off Solitude racetrack. The first driving impression was overwhelming. In terms of handling, roadholding and steering precision, the car displayed characteristics which, even after this short test, have to be described as the best available today. In terms of form and performance, this new Daimler-Benz 220 is a "classic European", an automobile of special standing."
And of course we now know all the developments that have taken place since then. But the automobile was not quite ready back then.
