Mercedes-Benz Delivers 500,000 Units of the Award-Winning C-Class

STUTTGART, Germany – December 2, 2008: Mercedes-Benz has delivered 500,000 new C-Class models from the current 204 series to customers around the world since the vehicle’s global market launch in March 2007.

“The C-Class sedan has maintained its position as the worldwide market leader in its segment since the beginning of the year”, says Dr. Klaus Maier, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“Sales of the new station wagon continue to increase as well. In the first year after its market launch sales of the station wagon are 20 percent higher than the figure recorded for the predecessor model during the same period.”

Around 440,000 new C-Class sedans have been sold since the model’s market launch, and over 60,000 customers have taken delivery of the station wagon version since that model’s introduction in the fall of 2007.

The most popular engine for the new C-Class is the powerful and fuel-efficient turbo-diesel C 220 CDI, which is the choice of a third of all customers around the world. The same engine has been chosen by almost half of the station wagon model’s customers globally.

Also popular is the supercharged C 200 KOMPRESSOR, which is ordered by 20 percent of all C-Class sedan customers.

Mercedes-Benz began taking orders in October for the new generation of four-cylinder diesel engines to be featured in the C 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY Prime Edition. The new engine will be available in Europe from this month and notwithstanding exceptional performance only consumes an average of 5.2 litres of fuel per 100 km (NEDC).

Also, Mercedes-Benz presented its fourth C-Class BlueEFFICIENCY model in October - the V6-powered C 350 CGI BlueEFFICIENCY with second-generation direct petrol injection. This new sedan consumes around 14 percent less fuel than the conventional C 350 model.

The other C-Class BlueEFFICIENCY models are the supercharged C 180 KOMPRESSOR and the turbo-diesel C 200 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY, both of which consume up to 12 percent less fuel while offering the same high level of comfort that is typical for Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

C-Class sedans are produced at Mercedes-Benz plants in Sindelfingen (Germany), Bremen (Germany), East London (South Africa) and in Beijing (China). All Australian C-Class sedans are made in Bremen, where the C-Class estate is manufactured exclusively.

Recently, the Mercedes-Benz factory in Sindelfingen received the J.D. Power Platinum Award for the best plant quality worldwide. The facility was also recently named “Factory of the Year” in recognition of its outstanding quality management system for C-Class production.

The new C-Class is especially popular among customers in Germany, who account for roughly 25 percent of total C-Class sales worldwide. The sedan has also maintained its leadership on the German market since the beginning of this year.

The second largest C-Class market, with an approximately 20 percent share of worldwide sales, is the U.S., which is followed by the UK, Italy, and South Africa.

Australian sales of the C-Class have remained strong since its market release in July 2007.

So far this year, almost 6,700 models from the Mercedes-Benz C-Class range have been sold. In fact, more than one in three customers in the hotly contested compact executive segment have chosen the C-Class over its rivals, holding a year-to-date market share of more than 36 percent (according to VFacts, October 2008), almost 12 percent more than its nearest competitor.

The multi-award winning C-Class has received a large number of accolades both here and abroad, and was last year presented with Wheels magazine’s prestigious Car of the Year award.

The C-Class is the largest selling model range in the Australian Mercedes-Benz catalogue.

In the sedan series, the C 200 KOMPRESSOR is by far the most popular model, accounting for more than 62 percent of local sales. The efficient and powerful turbo-diesel models, the four-cylinder C 220 CDI (125 kW/400Nm) and V6-powered C 320 CDI (165 kW/510Nm), have so far made up around 20 percent of total C-Class sales this year.

The stylish and practical C-Class estate has seen year-to-date sales split between the C 200 KOMPRESSOR estate (80 percent) and turbo-diesel C 220 CDI estate (20 percent). The fire-breathing 336 kW/600Nm C 63 AMG estate goes on sale this month, with record numbers of customer orders already being held by the authorised Mercedes-Benz dealer network.

The clear visual differentiation of the three model lines available in the C-Class - Classic, Elegance and Avantgarde - has proved to be very successful: more than half of the customers in both Australia and Germany have opted for the sporty Avantgarde line - and this share is even higher in several other markets.