Mercedes-Benz Bus History - Daimler

Buses after the merger: the long road to the rearmounted
engine
• Bodies made of steel enhance safety
• Semitrailer-type buses for maximum 170 passengers
• The first bus with a rear-mounted engine debuts in 1951
After the merger that created Daimler-Benz AG, the letter “N” stood
for vehicles with low frames, which in almost all cases were buses. But
at the same time there were also trucks with low frames, for instance
the N 5 model, a five-ton truck launched in 1928.
Three basic models made up the first post-merger range of buses: N1
stood for the 16-passenger bus with four-cylinder M 14 engine. The
N2, which used the six-cylinder M 26, was designed for 26
passengers. N5 in turn referred to the big flagship of the period, which
offered space for a maximum of 60 passengers and was powered by
the four-cylinder M 5 engine.
Of course, this wide-meshed range did not suffice in times of
decreasing business activity to secure an adequate volume of orders
for the factory. As early as 1928 a number of new models were added
and the existing range was modernized.
Wood gives way to strong steel in the bus
One aspect of this modernization was that steel soon made itself
useful in bus bodies in place of wood. For passenger transportation, in
1930 Daimler-Benz already was offering a new all-steel body that
made the vehicles sturdier, safer and yet lighter. Until then, wood had
been the preferred material of bodybuilders. Step by step, from 1930
on Daimler-Benz introduced a framed steel structure to supplant
Daimler Communications, 70546 Stuttgart/Germany
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