Vorsprung durch Technik: progress through technology. This famous advertising slogan has come to sum up the values of the German car industry as a whole. Today the car industry is the cornerstone of Germany's economy with instantly recognisable brands such as Audi, Daimler, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche among its leading players.

Germany is the birthplace of the automobile - in 1887 Karl Benz designed a couch fitted with an internal combustion engine, and the modern car was born. In 1901 Germany was already producing 900 cars a year; today the total is as high as 10 million. The industry employs about 1.26 million people, and over half of all the cars produced in Germany are exported. Today Daimler-Chrysler, the result of the merger between Daimler-Benz, Germany's largest manufacturers of cars, and the American Chrysler Corporation, is the third largest car manufacturer in the world.

The names of the car companies tell interesting, often personal stories. For example, when August Horch designed his first car, another car manufacturer operated under Horch's name, so he was forced to find a new name for his company. He selected the Latinised version of the German word Horch, listen, and came up with Audi. Mercedes was originally the name of an early Daimler sports car - it was named after a client's daughter.