Mercedes-Benz USA New Car Sales Up Six Percent

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) reported sales of 19,167 new vehicles in May, an increase of six percent over May 2002. This sets a year-to-date record of 88,655 units, according to the company. “To put this momentum in perspective, in just five months we have sold more vehicles than we did in all of 1995,” said Keith May, vice president of sales for MBUSA, “but more important than the volume is the diversity of products and innovations we now offer our customers from the brand new high-performance E55 AMG, to the C230 sports sedan to the addition of 4MATIC on all sedans and wagons. Having the most diverse product portfolio of any auto company in the luxury segment is what provides us a competitive advantage in a challenging environment.” Highlights for the month include sales of CLK coupes and Cabriolets showing a dramatic 65.5 percent increase compared to last May. Also, sales of the highly acclaimed E-Class model line doubled to 4,755 units in May 2003 versus 2,377 in May 2002. In addition, year-to-date sales increases were seen across the various product lines compared to the first five months in 2002: the E-Class rose 48.2 percent; the CLK-Class jumped 13.6 percent, the S-Class climbed 7.4 percent; and the C-Class was up 1.7 percent. Once again, the C-Class family of sports sedans, coupes and wagons led the way as volume leader for both the month and year-to-date, posting 5,371 and 27,807 units respectively. The company says AMG vehicles broke the 1,000-mark for the first time in their history, recording their best sales month ever (1,273 AMG units sold) and boosting year-to-date sales by 28.4 percent to 4,380 cars vs. 3,412 last year. AMG sales momentum will continue with the recent launch of the E55 AMG, the fastest production sedan ever built by Mercedes-Benz. Separately, MBUSA's Starmark certified pre-owned vehicle program continued its record pace with sales of 4,962 units in May, the best month ever for Starmark sales. This brought Starmark's year-to-date total to 20,930, an increase of 15.4 percent over last year.