Horse-drawn carriages characterised the streetscape right up until the beginning of the 20th century, but the advent of the automobile, which Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz developed independently of each other in 1886, established a completely new set of requirements compared with those associated with horse-drawn carriages – in particular where the suspension was concerned: it was necessary to cope with higher speeds, without endangering road users. Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz adopted different approaches to this: while Benz took the bicycle as the starting point for his Patent Motor Car and used a steering head and wire wheels, Daimler's vehicle was based on a carriage equipped with a steering system.

The technology evolved rapidly. In 1889, Wilhelm Maybach, Daimler's brilliant design engineer, developed the "wire-wheel car". Like the Benz vehicle, this now also had a chassis which was completely divorced from the world of carriage building. There was also great progress in the development of the engines which became ever more powerful, making the cars faster, but also heavier – a factor which placed new demands on the suspension. The design engineers responded with increasingly sophisticated solutions. These included the gradual adoption of coil springs – on the rear axle of the Daimler belt-driven car of 1895, for example. However, it was not Gottlieb Daimler but Carl Benz who solved the problem of how to steer a
four-wheeled vehicle by developing the "double pivot" steering system. This new type of steering, used for the first time in the Victoria model, was filed as a patent by Benz in 1893.

The dawn of the 20th century saw the chain drive finally replaced by the shaft drive which was already to be found in the 1902 Benz Parsifal, the counterpart of the Mercedes Simplex. The new drive system made it necessary to adopt a new design for the entire rear axle assembly: the axle gear unit was now equipped with an integrated differential which increased the unsprung masses. As this meant that the rear axle required more damping, additional dampers were fitted.

There was a surge of innovations in suspension technology during the 1930s as the roads were by then much more suited to fast motor traffic than they had been in the first quarter of the 20th century. Punctures were less frequent and suspension systems safer and more comfortable. The all-important additional front-wheel brakes first appeared in a Mercedes series-production vehicle in 1921 – initially in the powerful 28/95-hp Sport model. From summer 1924, all Mercedes passenger cars were offered with brakes on all four wheels. The comfort of car suspension systems, all of which were still based on rigid axles and leaf springs, improved significantly with the invention of the shock absorber although it was still less than ideal, especially in the case of smaller and lighter vehicles. A swing axle first appeared on the Benz "Tropfenwagen" (teardrop-shape) racing car of 1923.

On display at the 1931 Paris Motor Show was the Mercedes-Benz 170 with a completely new swing axle suspension, an important milestone in terms of ride comfort and handling safety. Of the four independently suspended wheels, the two at the front were located by a pair of transverse leaf springs, without a conventional axle, while each rear wheel was suspended from a swing-type axle half-shaft whose tubular sleeves were anchored to the frame by means of two coil springs each on the wheel side and mounted in journal bearings on the differential side. The result was a significant reduction in unsprung masses.

Independent wheel suspension, a firm principle for all Mercedes-Benz passenger cars ever since the introduction of the 170, established the brand's reputation for producing outstandingly comfortable and safe vehicles. 1933 saw the arrival of the supercharged eight-cylinder 380 sports car – also with a full swing-axle suspension – whose front wheels were for the first time located by parallelogram control arms with coil springs. This trailblazing design, separating wheel location, springing and damping from each other, became the standard front suspension system not just for Mercedes-Benz but also for numerous other manufacturers around the world.

In 1954, after countless refinements, the dual-joint swing axle introduced with the 170 in 1931 gave way to the single-joint swing axle which remained at Mercedes-Benz until 1972. It also had thrust arms and coil springs, and, in the case of more powerful models, also a horizontal compensating coil spring. A new dimension in ride comfort was opened up by the Mercedes-Benz 300 SE, launched in 1961, in which air-chamber spring bellows replaced the coil springs; at the same time, hydropneumatic level control was introduced for the rear axle. Level control had already featured in the Mercedes-Benz 300 in 1951, when it took the form of an electrically actuated torsion bar spring. The Mercedes-Benz 600 even had shock absorbers whose response could be adjusted from inside the vehicle.

The next major step, in 1968, was the diagonal swing axle which was introduced in the 114/115 model series. This was also supported on coil springs and ensured that track – and, particularly, camber – remained largely constant under spring compression and rebound.

At the end of 1982 the Mercedes-Benz model 190 of the compact W 201 series was presented. This was the direct forerunner of the C-Class. It featured the unprecedented and sensational multi-link independent rear suspension. The optimal travel of the independently suspended rear wheels was achieved by distributing the forces and moments to five three-dimensionally arranged links, each of which was geometrically specialised for its function. Comfort and roadholding were optimised independently of each other. The rear suspension was complemented by a newly developed front suspension with transverse control arms, damper struts and separately located coil springs. The multi-link independent rear suspension was gradually introduced in the other Mercedes-Benz models.

In the 1980s, electronics began to be adopted in suspension technology. The Mercedes-Benz SL of the R 129 model series became the brand's first series production car for which multi-stage electronic damper adjustment was available. The W 220 model-series S-Class joined the Mercedes-Benz range in 1998. Instead of a classic springing and damping system using coil springs and gas-pressure shock absorbers, this featured the newly developed, electronically controlled AIRMATIC system, in which the air suspension and the adaptive damping system (ADS) form an integral unit, including individual, automatic level control on each wheel.

Numerous enhancements to the multi-link independent rear suspension, now mainly made of aluminium components, brought significant improvements to roadholding, ride comfort and handling safety. The front axle was likewise redesigned, with a
four-link system of aluminium and steel replacing the previous double wishbone technology. Four components gave rise to the name: transverse spring links made of steel support the spring struts of the front axle. Radius rods at an oblique forward angle optimise front wheel location; these are assisted by upper wishbones as in the classic front suspension. Track rods link the transverse steering gear of the rack-and-pinion steering with the front wheels.

The Electronic Stability Program ESP®, which Mercedes-Benz presented in a
140 model-series S-Class Coupé in 1995, represented a revolution in handling safety. Initially fitted as standard in the S 600 Coupé and offered as an optional extra for other models, ESP® was already part of the standard equipment of all Mercedes-Benz passenger cars by 1999. ESP® identifies unstable driving situations as soon as they begin to develop and counters them by means of selective brake actuation.

Dynamism and motoring pleasure – that was the motto with which the large
Mercedes-Benz CL 500/CL 600 Coupé set a new standard for automotive engineering excellence in 1999 – and not just in Germany. The pioneering technology of the coupé opened up a new dimension of driving, primarily as a result of the world’s first active suspension system: Active Body Control ABC represented a milestone in dynamic handling control and ride comfort. In this system, hydraulically controlled servo cylinders in the spring struts work in unison with the passive shock absorbers and coil springs. The actively controllable elements reduce oscillating body vibrations up to five hertz, such as are noticeable in the form of body lift and roll on uneven road surfaces, heavy lateral roll on bends and diving under braking. In the Mercedes-Benz CL passive gas-pressure shock absorbers and coil springs were still responsible for handling higher-frequency wheel vibrations from six to 20 hertz, however their damping effect was less pronounced than in conventional suspension systems. This had a positive effect on vibration and road noise. Active roll stabilisation rendered torsion bar stabilisers superfluous.

The W 221 S-Class, launched in 2005, has an enhanced AIRMATIC air suspension system in combination with the Adaptive Damping System ADS. This continuously optimises the strength of the shock absorber response in line with the condition of the road, the driving style and the vehicle's load status. Within just 50 milliseconds, the system adjusts the damping force at each wheel to the current situation. Active Body Control ABC has been perfected to such an extent that the movements of the vehicle body during dynamic driving have been reduced by more than 60 percent compared with the previous model. This technology takes the S-Class into a new dimension of driving dynamics, yet does so while maintaining the highest standards of comfort.

The 204-series C-Class also set a benchmark for suspension technology in 2007: the ADVANCED AGILITY package makes it possible to adjust shock absorbers at the touch of a button – and at the same time to tune transmission shift characteristics. Also available is the AGILITY CONTROL package, a selective damping system that adjusts shock absorber power, steering and gearshifting to suit different driving conditions.

A glimpse of the future is provided by the Mercedes-Benz F 700 research car displayed at the 2007 International Motor Show in Frankfurt. With its active PRE-SCAN suspension, the car not only reacts highly sensitively to uneven patches of road surface but also acts in an anticipatory manner – enhancing both ride comfort and handling safety in equal measure. PRE-SCAN uses two laser sensors in the headlamps as "eyes" which produce a precise picture of the condition of the road. On the basis of the image created by the laser sensors and the information about the road condition, the control unit develops a strategy for overcoming the obstacle concerned. In response, Active Body Control adjusts the damping of each individual wheel to a tauter or softer setting in advance and increases or reduces the load on the wheel by means of an active hydraulic system. The suspension is adapted to a given situation within fractions of a second. This results in a hitherto unprecedented level of ride comfort, combined with maximum handling safety.

Launched in 2009, the E-Class of the 212 model series sets new standards for long-distance comfort in this vehicle category. The new model is equipped as standard with an enhanced suspension featuring an adaptive shock absorber system which adjusts automatically to the current driving situation by reducing the damping forces during normal driving, thereby increasing ride comfort noticeably. During dynamic cornering or when swerving at high speed to avoid an obstacle, the system applies the maximum damping force in order to stabilise the vehicle as effectively as possible. What's more, the vehicle can be ordered with a variant suspension system with dynamic damping characteristics and a lowered ride height as well as air suspension; for the first time, this has been combined with an infinitely variable electronically controlled damping system which processes various sensor signals and controls each wheel independently.

2009 also sees Mercedes-Benz launch a new generation of the S-Class. Factors contributing to the updated model's ability to meet the highest standards in terms of driving dynamics and agility include the Direct-Steer system, which varies the steering ratio according to the steering angle, and the modified Active Body Control ABC with crosswind stabilisation. In the case of the latter system, the ABC spring struts are used to vary the wheel load distribution in response to the direction and intensity of the crosswind so that its effects are largely compensated. ABC adjusts the response of the spring struts on the basis of input from the yaw rate and lateral acceleration sensors of the Electronic Stability Program ESP®. For added safety, the Torque Vectoring Brakes apply a calculated asymmetric braking force to the inner rear wheel when cornering. This has the effect of generating a defined turning or yawing moment about the vehicle's vertical axis so that the saloon turns into the bend without compromising any of its dynamic qualities.

At its premiere in 2007, the Mercedes-Benz F 700 research vehicle was dubbed the "flying carpet" by the motoring press because of its safe, comfortable and cleverly designed suspension. Of course, some of its features belong very much to the future. But series-production Mercedes-Benz vehicles already stand comparison with the "flying carpet" and they are moving ever closer to it with every new model series.