Produced in Stuttgart, Germany, by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), it began the Mercedes line of cars (since 1926 re-branded Mercedes-Benz).

A significant advancement over the previous generation of automobiles, which were modified stagecoaches, the Mercedes 35 HP is regarded as the first modern car.

[2] It was equipped with a powerful petrol engine, it was both wider and larger with a tailored steel chassis, and its center of mass was near the ground.

By 1900, Maybach was the chief engineer within the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG),[Note 1] which had been an expansion of their previous company that originated from their small workshop.

Emil Jellinek was a wealthy Austrian businessman and Austro-Hungarian diplomat living in Nice on the French Riviera.

His daughter Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek, 10 years old at the car's construction, was given the pet name "Mercédès".

Unlike the previous generation of cars, unstable motorized coaches of narrow high bodies which were so prone to overturn, the novel Mercedes should be longer, wider, and of a lower center of gravity.

Also it would have a light steel body and strong chassis, onto which the engine would be firmly fixed near the ground and lowering the car's center of gravity.

The automotive world was so astonished that Paul Meyan, director of the French Automobile Club, stated: "We have entered the Mercedes era".

[citation needed] In Stuttgart, DMG mounted two additional back seats on the Mercedes 35 HP, transforming it for a family car.

The relatively light engine (230 kg, with 6.6 kg/hp) was mounted over the front axle without any extra subframes, so its center of gravity was close to the ground.

The engine of the Mercedes 35 HP was at the front of the car driving the rear wheels through a large roller chain.

The intake and exhaust valves were no longer opened by cylinder pressure but by two camshafts on the sides of the engine, driven by gears from the flywheel.