14/06/2008 20:17. Everybody knows it as the E-Class, the benchmark in its segment. It is so generic that the segment is itself called E. That's a coincidence of course, but do you know how the E badge got affixed to the boot-lids of a particular class of Mercedes-Benz cars?

It goes back to the 1950s, when Mercedes-Benz introduced fuel injection in their cars, starting with the hallowed 300 SL gull-wing followed by the stately 300 S series of cars.

When fuel injection got into proper mass production, Mercedes-Benz suffixed an E next to the engine nomenclature, indicating that it featured "Einspritzung" - you got it, one of those complicated unpronounceable German words for something as simple as fuel injection.

Anyway, the E badge stuck around to define a new means of fuel feed till 1984 when the... // Rediff