Daimler not to get the Benz back

Mr Benz was the man behind the world's first automobile

Shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favour of changing DaimlerChrysler's name to plain Daimler, after selling the loss-making US unit.

At a special shareholder meeting on Thursday 98.8% wanted the change.

But some shareholders question why the company will not be reinstating the name of Karl Friedrich Benz, which was unceremoniously dropped in 1998.

Mr Benz's company merged with that of Gottlieb Daimler in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz.

Investors also suggested Benz-Daimler or just Benz as a name for the firm.

The company pointed out that the name of Mr Benz still appears on many of its cars.

Mr Benz built his first Patent Motor Car in 1886 - this is the 1887 model

"With Daimler, we will also avoid overlaps between the name of the corporation and the most valuable automobile brand name in the world, Mercedes-Benz," it said.

In a further attempt to keep shareholders happy, it has changed the name of its passenger car business from Mercedes Car Group to Mercedes-Benz Cars.

But another shareholder, Wilm Diedrich, said that calling the whole group Benz would have other benefits.

"The word Benz should be just as clearly connected with the present corporation as the word Daimler," he said.

"But the word Benz has the unbeatable advantage compared with the word Daimler that it is shorter and consists of half as many syllables," he added.

The US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management agreed in May to buy 80.1% of Chrysler for $5.5bn (£2.7bn).

Daimler had bought the US carmaker in 1998 for $36bn.