Why Becker?

[bpossel]

Does anyone know why MB installed Beckers in the 113's vs the Blaupunkt brand radios.  I know they did more than the 113s...

Anyway, why Becker vs Blaupunkt?  One would think that they would keep the car as German as possible.  My parents took Euro delivery of a 110 in 1965 and the Blaupunkt was an upgrade at that time.  It was a great radio!

Anyone know the story on this one?

Thanks!
Bob

bpossel
Memphis, TN.
1971 280SL
1997 E320

[Cees Klumper]

A Mercedes generally has a Becker radio to this day. Even my relatively new C180 has a new Becker (Mexico in fact I believe!), and I had it installed aftermarket at a DC dealer - that's all they carried in stock. Becker's a German make. You hardly see them anywhere else; it almost seems as though the Mercedes and Becker companies are linked somehow - in any event it seems to be a very long-standing and exclusive relationship.

The same actually applies to the consistency with which the Mercedi dashboards seem to be put together. I don't know about the latest models, but for at least a few decades, the lay-out of the dash seemed to be quite similar between all of the various models. One day I drove a lady in my 1982 W123 300 turbodiesel, and she said "it's like coming home, my 560 SL has the same dashboard!"

Cees Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[mdsalemi]

Well, you can ask Becker for the truth, but I think that Becker is more of a higher-end radio then Blaupunkt.  I don't know where Beckers are made today but most Blaupunkts come from Singapore, China and other Pacrim nations...

MB dealers in the US installed Blaupunkt; Beckers are the only radios installed by the factory at the time our cars were made.  So you will some cars with original (from the dealer) Blaupunkts, but if it was installed at the factory in Germany, it was a Becker for sure.


Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[bpossel]

 In 1965 we picked our 110 up at the factory and it had the Blaupunkt radio (thought my Dad did the upgrade?)

Puzzled?

quote:Originally posted by mdsalemi

Well, you can ask Becker for the truth, but I think that Becker is more of a higher-end radio then Blaupunkt.  I don't know where Beckers are made today but most Blaupunkts come from Singapore, China and other Pacrim nations...

MB dealers in the US installed Blaupunkt; Beckers are the only radios installed by the factory at the time our cars were made.  So you will some cars with original (from the dealer) Blaupunkts, but if it was installed at the factory in Germany, it was a Becker for sure.


Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

bpossel
Memphis, TN.
1971 280SL
1997 E320

[bpossel]

Hi Cees,

Becker is German?  I thought these radios came from Mexico???

Bob

quote:Originally posted by cees klumper

A Mercedes generally has a Becker radio to this day. Even my relatively new C180 has a new Becker (Mexico in fact I believe!), and I had it installed aftermarket at a DC dealer - that's all they carried in stock. Becker's a German make. You hardly see them anywhere else; it almost seems as though the Mercedes and Becker companies are linked somehow - in any event it seems to be a very long-standing and exclusive relationship.

The same actually applies to the consistency with which the Mercedi dashboards seem to be put together. I don't know about the latest models, but for at least a few decades, the lay-out of the dash seemed to be quite similar between all of the various models. One day I drove a lady in my 1982 W123 300 turbodiesel, and she said "it's like coming home, my 560 SL has the same dashboard!"

Cees Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

bpossel
Memphis, TN.
1971 280SL
1997 E320

[hauser]

How come no one mentioned Grundig?  This is also a German brand radio.

1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[Malc]

Could it simply be that Becker won the contract to supply so many units per year at a better price than Blaupunkt?
Malc

[bpossel]

OK.  Have done some more reading.  Becker is indeed German and a very good radio!  Here is a good link on the Becker history.
http://www.beckerautosound.com/beckerhistory.html

B.

quote:Originally posted by bpossel

Does anyone know why MB installed Beckers in the 113's vs the Blaupunkt brand radios.  I know they did more than the 113s...

Anyway, why Becker vs Blaupunkt?  One would think that they would keep the car as German as possible.  My parents took Euro delivery of a 110 in 1965 and the Blaupunkt was an upgrade at that time.  It was a great radio!

Anyone know the story on this one?

Thanks!
Bob

bpossel
Memphis, TN.
1971 280SL
1997 E320

bpossel
Memphis, TN.
1971 280SL
1997 E320

[Ricardo]

Hauser
They probably didn't use Grundig's as there wasn't enough room for the liquor cabinet they all came in[:0]
Ricardo

[mdsalemi]

Well as one who has been through this before, let me add that older Blaupunkt radios are, for the most part, not repairable.  There is no support; no "factory service" and nobody you can call when your 20+ year old Blaupunkt fails.  When it doesn't work any more you throw it out.  Poke around on the internet, and you will find http://www.midwestelectronics.com However they won't repair radios as old as the original ones that were in the 113's.  The claim is that there are a lot of "proprietary parts" inside the Blaupunkts that are not made anymore.

There are some independent repair places around; I checked with two of them.  One wanted, w/o looking at it, nearly $300 for repair of the Blaupunkt.  The other wanted to look at it and after he did said it wasn't repairable.

Then comes Becker. Becker sold me a correct Europa MU mono, factory rebuilt, made "close to" the time of my 113, for $340. If they made it, they'll fix it.  Ed Ebel gave a nice talk at Starfest Tech Session about their services--and if you think we have troubles, there are a whole lot of considerably older MB's out there with TUBE radios, and yes Becker will fix them all.

That kind of support is probably why MB continues to choose Becker as their radio supplier.  The ease of getting Blaupunkts with their German name and relatively low cost is why it was for the most part a dealer installed item.

As for bpossel picking one up in 1965 at the factory, who knows?  Becker says they are the only factory installed radios.

I've never seen a Grundig radio in any German car in the USA, but perhaps our European members can tell us if Grundig ever made or still makes radios for automobiles?

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[Klaus]

Becker radios were produced in the Black Forest very close to the MB factory in Sindelfingen. The relationship between Becker and MB was very close. Ex factory you could only get Becker, anything else you could have installed at the dealer or at a car radio store.
In the 1980s the quality and sophistication of the Becker radios was not up to par anymore, especially when compared to the Japanese brands. MBNA insisted on a second supplier. In the early 1990s Alpine was added as a second supplier. Alpine radios were installed in all cars coming from Bremen (C-Class, SL, T-models), Beckers in Sindelfingen cars. The faceplates of the two brands looked identical and had the MB logo, you could see the brand only when looking into the cassette slot with a flashlight. When Alpine was introduced and had a very low failure rate, miraculously the Becker quality improved within a year also, although never reached the Alpine level. Becker nearly went bankrupt on the quality problems, and was for sale for a long time, finally it was bought by Harman Kardon.
Blaupunkt was the sole supplier for the first Comand (Navigation) systems, around the year 2000, but it had so many problems that they were dropped after a short time.

Klaus
1969 280 SL

[gwuisman]

This thread inspired me to ask Becker directly about their relation to MB and pagodas in particular. The answer was as follows:

Sehr geehrter Herr Wuisman
leider ist uns der Begriff Pagoden nicht bekannt.
In die Mercedes Fahrzeugtypen wurden keine spezielle Gerätetypen von unserem Hause eingebaut. Mercedes hat von der Firma Becker eine bestimmte Anzahl von Mexico, Europa, Avus oder Grand Prix bestellt. In welche Fahrzeuge diese Typen im Endeffekt eingebaut wurden, ist uns nicht bekannt. Für bestimmte Fahrzeugtypen wie z. B. SL wurde eine schmälere Radioblende (42mm) aufgesetzt. Das Radiogehäuse hatte aber immer die Höhe von 52mm. Die Gerätebezeichnung hat sich dadurch jedoch nicht geändert.
 
Nachstehend aufgeführt die Gerätetypen die in dieser Zeit gebaut wurden:
Grand Prix TG - teiltransistorisiert, Zweiblockgerät gemischte Bestückung Röhren und Transistoren, Automatik- und Stationsdrucktastengerät
Europa TG - teiltransistorisiert, Zweiblockgerät gemischte Bestückung Röhren und Transistoren, Stationsdrucktastengerät
Mexico TG - teiltransistorisiert, Zweiblockgerät gemischte Bestückung Röhren und Transistoren, Automatikgerät
Monte Carlo TR - volltransistorisiert, Einblockgerät
Europa TR - volltransistorisiert, Zweiblockgerät, Stationsdrucktastengerät
Mexico TR - volltransistorisiert, Zweiblockgerät, Automatikgerät
Grand Prix TR - volltransistorisiert, Zweiblockgerät, Automatik- und Stationsdrucktastengerät
Avus TR - volltransistorisiert, Einblockgerät
Mexico Cassette - Zweiblockgerät, Automatik- und Stereotonbandcassettengerät, ab Baujahr 1970
Europa Stereo - Zweiblockgerät, Stationsdrucktastengerät, ab Baujahr 1970
Grand Prix - Einblockgerät, ab Baujahr 1970
Avus - Einblockgerät, ab Baujahr 1970
 
Leider kann ich Ihnen keine weiteren Informationen liefern. Wir hoffen jedoch, dass Ihnen diese Informationen ein wenig weitergeholfen hat.
 
mfg
SCI / Wilfried Maag

This answer is a little bit disappointing for those who are thinking that the pagoda had some special attention of Becker. The MB relation is just commecial: we delivered the radios as ordered by MB. They did not know in which types the radios were built in. For some types like the pagoda the front was smaller but 'the pagoda' as such did not have their special notice.

Gerard Wuisman,
1970 280sl

[Mike Hughes]

When Ford Motor Company imported a special edition of the European Sierra XR4 into the U.S. back in 1985 (Merkur XR4Ti) the radio was by Grundig.  It was such an awful unit that the factory replaced it in production with a Blaupunkt unit for the 1987 model year.  One of my customers back then happened to be sitting next to the Chariman of FoMoCo at a White House dinner and, when the conversation got around to cars, my customer volunteered that he had a Merkur and loved everything about it except the radio, which sucked!  One week later a swat team from Detroit arrived at our dealership, with orders to strip out his car and refit it with the 1987 Dash panel, wiring harness and the new Blaupunkt OEM sound system, right down to the speakers!

Maybe there is a good reason why one never sees a Grundig auto radio in a Mercedes!

quote:Originally posted by mdsalemi

I've never seen a Grundig radio in any German car in the USA, but perhaps our European members can tell us if Grundig ever made or still makes radios for automobiles?

- Mike Hughes  -ô¿ô-
  1966 230SL Auto P/S
  Havanna Brown (408)
  Light Beige (181)
  Cream M-B Tex (121)

[mdsalemi]

Mike,

Funny you should post this...I had a 1989 Merkur XR4Ti and it was one of the best cars I ever owned.  Heated leather seats, good on fuel (turbo 4 cylinder engine ex Thunderbird; the US car did not have the European engine in it) fun to drive, well appointed interior.  If what you say is true it had a Blaupunkt radio--but for the life of me the radio was a non-issue.  It worked well and thus I paid no attention to it whatsoever.

My wife works for Ford, (and has for 19 years) and we live in Ford country, and these cars were all over at one time.  Now, sadly, all you see is an occasional "beater" XR4Ti.  The nickname for this little pocket rocket at Ford was "Xerati" (rhymes with Maserati).

The import of the Xerati and its big brother, the Scorpio (Sierra in Europe) was a great idea, poorly executed by Edsel Ford II--Henry Ford II's son.  They both were great cars.  The Scorpios at the end of their life were not selling, and they were abandoned orphans as it were; hundreds were accumulating at the port in New Jersey.  They almost were de-badged and sent to be taxi cabs in latin America but eventually after sitting for nearly a year, the remaining units were "restored" (you have to do that to a new car that does not move for a year) brought into "company car" service in Detroit and elsewhere in the corporate land of Ford.

Never knew the early cars had a Grundig!


Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[Mike Hughes]

I still have an '89 XR4Ti.  Wonderful car for the interstates AND the mountains.  Goes like a bat outta... well, you know!

quote:Originally posted by mdsalemi

Mike,

Funny you should post this...I had a 1989 Merkur XR4Ti and it was one of the best cars I ever owned.  Heated leather seats, good on fuel (turbo 4 cylinder engine ex Thunderbird; the US car did not have the European engine in it) fun to drive, well appointed interior.

- Mike Hughes  -ô¿ô-
  1966 230SL Auto P/S
  Havanna Brown (408)
  Light Beige (181)
  Cream M-B Tex (121)

[Ben]

The Merkur was a Sierra alright but the Scorpio was a bigger car altogether. We had the Sierra XR41 with the 2.8 V6 in it and later the Granada Scorpio 2.9i before it became the ugly frog like Scorpio Ultima !

Sierras were great cars, especially the Cosworth versions !!

Regards,
Ben in Ireland.
'64 230SL 4sp.
'03 CLK Kompressor