SERVING THE STAR AROUND THE WORLD
By Heinz Hoppe, 325 pages, 1992, ISBN 3517 013609 Südwest Press. (Used books, limited copies available)
We have a limited number of this out-of-print book. They are used books in "as new" condition.
Your price: $599.00
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"This is one of my favorite Mercedes books, bar none."
- John Olson, SL Market Letter editor and author of The SL Experience.
If rare Mercedes books interest you, we have a limited number of “as new” copies of the out-of-print English language edition of this excellent book. This collectible is an uncommonly candid autobiography by the first president of Mercedes-Benz of North American (MBNA), Heinz Hoppe.
For anyone with a good Mercedes-Benz book collection, this may prove to be your all time favorite book. Hoppe's writing is uncommonly frank and humorous as he tells about nearly every significant M-B event and person he met over four decades. For North Americans the foibles of surviving the 1950s and 1960s exceeded all expectations. Then the story moves global. It is one of the most candid and entertaining Mercedes books you will every read. Here is a taste of what's waiting for you:
In 1954 Heinz Hoppe was hired into Daimler-Benz at age 37 by his former military commander, Carl Giese, for the dubious purpose of furthering Giese’s personal agenda of assembling M-B cars in the USA under private contract as he was already doing in India. This was not clearly disclosed until Hoppe was dispatched to the USA less than six months after hire. Initially he was told to steer clear of Max Hoffman and concentrate on finding a partner with large assembly capability and interest in Mercedes-Benz. Karl Kieckhaefer, the well known manufacturer of Mercury Outboard Motors and avid auto racing sponsor of Hudson Hornets and Chrysler 300s, became one “target.”
Kieckhaefer also had become owner of the first alloy-bodied Gullwing sold, which remained in his family for forty years. He never got too excited about assembling M-B and the search for a strong American affiliate became long and complicated. Such big names as General Electric, United Aircraft (Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky), were approached, ultimately resulting in a contract with Curtis-Wright Corporation (C-W) after it bought failing Studebaker-Packard.
A C-W claim of 2,500 Studebaker-Packard dealers troubled Heinz Hoppe a lot as they weren’t producing strong sales, had tired facilities and knew little about Mercedes-Benz. Giese reasoned that if each dealer sold only two cars a month, that would still be 60,000 cars a year, 75% of M-B’s worldwide production at that time, more even than they could with-out expansion. Even if the dealers sold one car a month that would be ten times Max Hoffman’s sales. The prospect of Communism spreading further into Europe lead to additional contract provisions concerning assets and rights not necessary in a marketing agreement -- potentially to Karl Giese’s benefit if problems evolved in Europe. A seven year agreement was signed on March 6, 1957 with Curtis-Wright for sales & service through Studebaker-Packard dealers.
MBNA now had an alternative to Hoffman Motor Company and Heinz Hoppe was directed to sever DBAG’s contract with Hoffman and taking possession of all Hoffman’s new M-B vehicles and parts inventory for redeployment to selected Studebaker-Packard-Mercedes-Benz dealers. Rather than risking a public legal battle with Hoffman based on unsatisfactory service representation, an agreement was reached whereby Studebaker-Packard would pay Hoffman $2 million dollars at the rate of $20 per car they sold, i.e. the first 100,000 cars they sold.
Many European car companies have failed in the USA, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Rover and MG (and more) have all come and gone. Mercedes-Benz (MBNA) has been one of the successes stories but its troubles far from over in 1957. Many US Studebaker-Packard (S-P) dealers would not be suited to or want a Mercedes franchise. Giese and the South Bend, Indiana headquarters staff projected 43,000 cars for a start-up period of the first 22 months as they contracted individual dealers. There would be an initially assortment of six cylinder models plus the 190SL. The first few months seemed promising as the first dealers signed on and took their initial inventory. By August of 1957 Heinz Hoppe’s fears were surfacing. After the largest, most suitable dealers were up and running new signings were shockingly low -- only 200 total by 12/31/57.
Actual retail sales were so far below expectations that South Bend and Herr. Giese stonewalled all sales reports to Stuttgart (reports required in their agreement) Stuttgart send accountants to retrieve the data themselves. By year’s end only 3,150 cars had been sold, only 129 cars more than Hoffman sold in ‘56! An additional 3,500 cars has piled up outdoors all over the country. Warrantee service on the sold cars was every bit as bad as with Hoffman. Good shop service manuals were provided to dealers and classes were arranged in South Bend on unique features such as fuel injection but mechanics forgot whatever they did learn between sparse customers. In the mean time production of “real” Packards ended which was not as beneficial to Mercedes-Benz as one might assume.
Lacking any good news whatsoever an investigation team was sent from Stuttgart in February 1958 [foreshadow of Andreas Renschler’s 2004 visit to Mitsubishi?]. After a week’s of review it concluded M-B’s USA business would have to be reorganized without Giese or Studebaker-Packard. Remnants of Studebaker were retained by a newly subsidiary called Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc. Heinz Hoppe survived the changes even though he was seen as a Giese lieutenant because he had opposed the Curtis-Wright agreement.
During 1958 Curtis-Wright announced it would write off its agreement with Studebaker and surrender all rights of it’s contract back to Daimler-Benz. Hoppe went on to become President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz of North America in 1985, a wholly Mercedes-owned Sales and Service organization for the USA and Canada. Dealships and sales finally began to grow. In 1970 Hoppe was invited onto the Board of Management to succeed Arnold Wychodil as Board Member in Charge of World Sales. This launches the book into world adventures rarely experienced by any short of heads-of-state. But then, DBAG had become larger than some of the countries to which it sold cars and trucks! And Hoppe became it's chief diplomat.
Originally printed in 1992 in German with only a few thousand books in English. We are very lucky to discover these few remaining copies.
