Mercedes-Benz Bus History - Daimler

capacity buses. Daimler-Benz presented a model of one such vehicle
at the 1935 Berlin auto show. The MB 805 V12 diesel previously used
in locomotives was supposed to give this vehicle a particularly strong
heart; a proper engine room was provided for it at the back of the bus.
Under discussion were outputs of 350 and 450 hp. However, the
Second World War put an abrupt end to these pipedreams.
First postwar bus arrives as early as 1948
After war’s end the want and need were great and no one could waste
a thought on futuristic vehicles such as this. But in March 1948
Daimler-Benz already managed to introduce the new O 4500 bus. This
vehicle took up the traditional cab-behind-engine design, but
integrated it into an aesthetically extremely pleasing overall design.
As if they knew their time would soon be up and the forward-control or
cab-over-engine vehicles couldn’t be stopped, the long-nosed buses of
the postwar days flaunted especially elegant designs. More akin to a
coquettish snub nose than a powerful hood, the conventional front
end of the vehicle fitted into an overall picture which seemed to
express mainly one thing: verve. The stylistic elements serving to
create this impression were an arched roof, a rounded rear end, and a
lateral line which lightly and elegantly rose like a treble clef from hood
to window area and then seemed to bow down in an agreeable way at
the rear of the bus.
But design as an end in itself is something no one could have afforded
in the hard times after the war, when the car played practically no role
and bus and rail were responsible for mobility. In part a certain
economical calculation was at the root of the novel, light design of the
O 4500, because key raw materials still were rationed.
Daimler Communications, 70546 Stuttgart/Germany
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