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NEWS
Mercedes sells AMG number 10,000
Prestige importer welcomes rapidly growing sales, but waits impatiently for GT and new C 63Mercedes-Benz Australia has kicked a significant goal, selling its 10,000th AMG model in Australia since the performance brand launched here back in 1995.
The S 63 AMG delivered last month was ordered the same day as an A 45 and a C 63 coupe, according to David McCarthy, Senior Manager for Public Relations, Product and Corporate Communications at MB Australia.
"It could have been the cheapest AMG, the mid-priced AMG or one of the most expensive AMGs. They were all ordered on the same day, but at different times."
Sales of AMG models have accelerated rapidly in recent years, McCarthy says. For the year to date Mercedes-Benz has sold 2305 AMGs in Australia. Last year the brand sold fewer than 1700 units.
"It's only in the last five years it's got up into four figures. Obviously the compacts help..."
The 'compacts' are the more affordable A-Class (MFA platform) performance models such as the A 45 and the CLA 45 AMG. But while the non-traditional AMG models, with their east/west (transverse) engines, have certainly boosted sales, the C 63 AMG has been the volume seller in the range over a longer period of time. That means Mercedes-Benz Australia is faced with an acute supply problem until such time as the new W205 series joins the local range, during the second quarter next year "at the earliest."
"A third of the AMGs we've sold in Australia since we launched the brand have been C 63s," McCarthy noted. Until the W205 series reaches the local market, the only C 63s available are the previous generation coupes. To date, Benz is holding an order bank for the W205 generation C 63 somewhere "into three figures," with some months yet before the car is officially on sale.
Benz is yet to establish a price for the new car, but McCarthy says that "C 63 will be in the same neighbourhood as it is currently..."
There will additionally be a higher performance C 63 available, the C 63 S. And that model will be built exclusively during the first months of production. Both levels will be sold in Australia, but McCarthy doesn't anticipate much interest in the lower-powered version.
"When we introduced performance pack and 507 on C 63, no one ordered the base model. They all ordered [the cars] with more performance. I don't expect that will be any different with GT and the new C 63."
The GT to which he refers is the new AMG GT, the smaller sibling to the SLS 'Gullwing'. Benz intends for the GT to go on sale here next year. Like the C 63, the GT will be available in two different outputs: the 'base' 350kW version and the 'S' grade 375kW variant. With deliveries of the GT S still some way off yet, McCarthy says they're yet to settle on a price for the new model.
"GT S... we've said 911 Carrera S money – around $250,000. We haven't locked and loaded our price yet," he said.
Yet that hasn't hindered sales orders, although McCarthy was reluctant to quantify how many orders Benz is holding for the new coupe.
"We haven't input them into the system, because we can't order cars yet," he explained. But at dealer level sales staff are keeping tabs on expressions of interest and deposits left – without any inkling about the final price. According to McCarthy, the anecdotal evidence from the dealers has been highly positive.
"The amount of interest it's [attracted] has been huge."
In some ways, the lack of a currently available C 63 sedan (and wagon) makes AMG's performance in 2014 all the more remarkable.
AMG models have proved particularly popular in Australia, on a per capita basis. Australians love high-performance machines, especially those exuding a dramatic presence. AMGs account for "more than 10 per cent" of Benz sales in Australia, says McCarthy. That's enough to make Australia one of the larger AMG markets in the world.
"We are consistently – if not number one – number two, in terms of penetration... even some of the really big markets don't have that level of penetration."
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Written byKen Gratton
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