| After the Diesel-engine had passed the test of time and demonstrated its assets in the construction of commercial vehicles, the construction of a Diesel-passenger car was the logical consequence. After many years of working on its development, the type 260 D was presented as a six-seated Pullman-landaulet on the Berlin Automobile Exhibition in February 1936. At the same time Hanomag presented the "Rekord Diesel", the second car with a Diesel-engine. This one, however - in contrast to the 260_D - was not yet ready for production, so that the title "First Diesel-passenger car to be produced in series" clearly belongs to the compression ignition engine from Untertrkheim. From the very beginning the 260_D was successful and was produced nearly 2,000 times up to 1940. The assets of the Diesel-engine - longevity and economy - are now impressively shown in the passenger car, too. In so doing the 260_D was the first in the long line of successful Diesel-passenger cars. . The fact that the first cars were almost exclusively used as taxis was not only because the engine was particularly economic but also because the bodywork with its six seats, known since 1934 from the type 200, was so spacious. |