Although Mercedes-Benz South Africa has stopped giving out
its sales information to its peers,
as most of them do, through National Automobile Association of South Africa (NAAMSA), it has been kind enough to let
us know how it did in December, as
well as the whole of 2011. A summary
of its sales figures follows.
Starting off with the facelifted C-Class sedan which is still the segment leader,
outselling direct rivals Audi A4,
BMW 3 Series and Volvo S60, there
was still improvement in sales. Both facelift sedan and Estate versions were launched
in July 2011 and raked up 13 762 units (in addition to pre-facelift) by the end of December. The niche
derivative C-Class Coupe pushed through 481 examples through the year.
Mercedes-Benz cars was able to sell 23 561 passenger cars in 2011, giving it an overall market
share of 7.1%, the highest total market percentage in any
country outside of Germany. The B-Class pushed 2 049 units in 2011, a
whopping 72% increase on 2010. Remarkably that was its last year in
production as it gets replaced by a completely
new model this year (see below). The outgoing M-Class SUV
also finished its last year with a bang, notching up 1 570 units for the year.
In the case of the E-Class Coupe and Cabriolet we can see there
was a 33% improvement in sales, to 819 units sold. That’s an average of
about 68 of these exclusive cars
every month in 2011. AMG did not really enjoy the year as it only sold 535 units. This should improve with
several new AMGs either already here
or being planned for the year.
When it comes to the new
CLS there were no complaints at the till after it collected 171 new owner signatures since its
September launch. The SLK roadster also flew off the dealership floors, doubling 2011 sales to 374. That means it
outsold the BMW Z4, Nissan 370 Z, Peugeot RCZ, Porsche Boxster/ Cayman
and Audi TT.
Last but not least, Mercedes-Benz promises to light up our
fires in 2012 with a few German firecrackers.
The new ML-Class is confirmed, along with its AMG variant, the ML 63 AMG. All-new B-Class is also a
go, featuring new turbo engines. The roaring SLK 55 AMG will surely get us going, while the brand new SL Roadster is also on the cards. For a select few, the C 63 AMG Black Series will put a permanent smile on their faces. Click on all the links to read up on
these upcoming models.
2 comments:
My palms are sweaty already
I liked the CLK. But I must say the E Class coupe is now very much my thing.
Post a Comment