MERCEDES-BENZ SA POSTS GREAT RESULTS, PROMISES BOLD NEW PRODUCTS

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.