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NEWS
Milestone for Benz C-Class
W204 series notches up 40,000 units sold in Australia since 2007Mercedes-Benz is well on its way to achieving a new sales record for the calendar year 2013.
And the most popular model in the range, the W204 series C-Class, has set a new personal best over the course of its model life.
"C-Class has now sold more than 40,000 units since launch... since it was introduced mid-2007," said David McCarthy, Mercedes-Benz Australia's Senior Manager for Corporate Communications.
"It's won its segment in 2008, 9, 10, 11 and 12 – and, I suspect, 13. That's basically six and a half years it has been on top of that segment."
Add to that figure 4500 coupe models sold since launch of the two-door variants and C-Class in its current iteration has exceeded 45,000 sales in Australia, McCarthy told motoring.com.au yesterday. In year-to-date figures published by VFACTS yesterday, the C-Class (including coupe models) has sold 7460 cars during 2013. That places the Benz around a thousand units ahead of its closest rival.
Right across the board, 2013 has been a strong year for Benz, despite the local market being "spotty," as McCarthy describes it.
"We passed 20,000 earlier in November; with SUVs we've passed 21,000. But our issue remains, unfortunately, with A-Class and CLA-Class supply. B-Class is doing fine, B-Class is actually ahead of A-Class. It's going to be a race to the finish there...
"In the small segment, A and B-Class have just a smidgeon under 6000 units year to date. Their share of that segment is 38.9 per cent."
A tally of 34.6 per cent for C-Class and CLA combined, for the year to date, means Benz holds over a third of both the luxury medium and small-car segments' sales volumes. In spite of the company's sales growth throughout the year, the previously projected figure of 24,000 for the year may just be out of reach.
"I think it would be reasonable to think that we'll give 23 [thousand] a nudge," McCarthy speculates. "It really is dependent on cars arriving. We are expecting a big A-Class and B-Class arrival in December.
"The order rate remains very strong, so the challenge is supply and getting them through the system. We're up 33 per cent [for the year], and that puts a lot of pressure on our logistics system.
"December is always a difficult month, because you have a lot of days out of the month, people go on holidays as well."
As for the company's high-performance AMG models, they're in striking range of a 1500-unit sales figure for the year, having climbed to 1411 by the end of November. A45, C 63 sedan and C 63 coupe are "all within about 50 units of each," for the year to date, said McCarthy. Combined, the three models account for over half of all AMG sales in Australia for 2013.
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Written byKen Gratton
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