page_title: Colectivo
section_title: 1950–1990
hierarchical_section_title: Colectivo / History / 1950–1990
caption_attribution_description: Colectivo Mercedes Motorhome taken in Mendoza. Mercedes Benz LO 3500 colectivo turned motorhome.
context_page_description: Colectivo is the name given in Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay to a type of public transportation vehicle, especially those of Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires. The name comes from vehículos de transporte colectivo, reflecting their origin as shared taxis.
  When they first appeared in the 1920s, colectivos were small buses built out of smaller vehicle chassis and, later, out of truck chassis, not specifically designed for the transportation of people, and were decorated with unique hand-painted drawings that gave each unit a distinct flavor.
  They steadily evolved and grew larger, but kept their picturesque style until the 1990s, when the urban fleet was modernized with standard rear-engined bus units.
  During most of their history, tickets were sold by the driver, who would drive off as soon as all passengers had boarded, selling tickets while driving.
context_section_description: Mercedes-Benz truck and buses
  After World War II and during the 1950s Argentine industry started to develop again, but the country's public transport system was inadequate for the new era: practically no modernization had taken place since the early years, and the suburban railway system was not sufficient to meet the rising demands of the population.
  Mercedes-Benz moved into the colectivo market: in 1951 the then Daimler-Benz AG set up in Argentina its first factories outside Germany: one in the town of San Martín, near Buenos Aires, and another in González Catán.
  Mercedes released updated local colectivo chassis, a modified L 3500 truck chassis – LO 3500, OP 3500, LO 311, LO 312, LO 911 (the [O] stands for Omnibus) – with a separately manufactured body fitted later by different coachbuilders. In less than a decade the output was 6,500 units a year. In 1963 Mercedes built the 10,000nd colectivo (model LO 312), and continued with other models, such as L 1112 (120 HP), LA 1112 (all-wheel traction) and the L 1114. The Mercedes-Benz colectivos had truck powerplants, a diesel engine with power transmitted to the rear axle by a five-speed constant-mesh gearbox.
  All the lines progressively adopted these units and, from 1950 to 1990, all colectivos were eventually Mercedes-Benz models.
caption: Classic Mercedes Benz LO 3500 colectivo turned motorhome
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