Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. It is currently a division of the parent company, Daimler AG , after previously being owned by Daimler-Benz. Mercedes-Benz has its origins in Karl Benz's creation of the first gasoline-powered automobile in January 1886, and by Gottlieb Daimler and engineer Wilhelm Maybach's conversion of a carriage by the addition of a petrol engine the same year. The Mercedes automobile was first marketed in 1901 by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. The first Mercedes-Benz brand name vehicles were produced in 1926, following the... merger of Karl Benz's and Gottlieb Daimler's companies into the Daimler-Benz company. Mercedes-Benz has introduced many technological and safety innovations that have become common in other vehicles several years later. Since its inception, Mercedes-Benz had a reputation for its quality and durability. Objective measures looking at passenger vehicles such as J.D. Power surveys demonstrated a downturn in reputation in this criteria in the late 1990s and early 2000s.