Mercedes-Benz USA New Car Sales Up Six Percent

Mercedes AMG and Starmark Each Post Best Sales Month Ever

MONTVALE, N.J., June 3 -- Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) reported sales of 19,167 new vehicles in May, an increase of six percent over May 2002. This sets a year-to-date record of 88,655 units.

"To put this momentum in perspective, in just five months we have sold more vehicles than we did in all of 1995," said Keith May, vice president of sales for MBUSA, "but more important than the volume is the diversity of products and innovations we now offer our customers from the brand new high performance E55 AMG, to the C230 sport sedan to the addition of 4MATIC on all sedans and wagons. Having the most diverse product portfolio of any auto company in the luxury segment is what provides us a competitive advantage in a challenging environment."

Highlights for the month include sales of CLK coupes and cabriolets showing a dramatic 65.5 percent increase for the month compared to last May. Also, sales of the highly acclaimed E-Class model line doubled to 4,755 units in May 2003 versus 2,377 in May 2002.

In addition, year-to-date sales increases were seen across the various product lines compared to the first five months in 2002: the E-Class rose 48.2 percent; the CLK-Class jumped 13.6 percent, the S-Class climbed 7.4 percent; and the C-Class was up 1.7 percent. Once again, the C-Class family of sport sedans, coupes and wagons led the way as volume leader for both the month and year-to-date, posting 5,371 and 27,807 units respectively.

High-performance AMG vehicles broke the 1,000 mark for the first time in their history, recording their best sales month in MBUSA history (1,273 AMG units sold) and boosting year-to-date sales 28.4 percent (4,380 vs. 3,412). AMG sales momentum will continue with the recent launch of the E55 AMG, the fastest production sedan ever built by Mercedes-Benz.

Separately, MBUSA's Starmark certified pre-owned vehicle program continued its record pace with sales of 4,962 units in May, the best month ever for Starmark sales. This brought Starmark's year-to-date total to 20,930, an increase of 15.4 percent over last year.

                            MERCEDES-BENZ USA
                            Sales -- May 2003

  Model            May '03  May '02  Monthly %  YTD 2003  YTD 2002  Yearly %

  C-CLASS TOTAL      5,371    6,321     -15.0%    27,807    27,341      1.7%

  E-CLASS TOTAL      4,755    2,377     100.0%    21,747    14,677     48.2%

  S-CLASS TOTAL      1,989    2,002      -0.6%     9,281     8,642      7.4%

  CL TOTAL             376      434     -13.4%     1,685     1,689     -0.2%

  SL TOTAL           1,007    1,209     -16.7%     4,759     6,334    -24.9%

  CLK TOTAL          2,226    1,345      65.5%     8,582     7,555     13.6%

  SLK TOTAL            699      910     -23.2%     2,556     3,690    -30.7%

  M-CLASS TOTAL      2,591    3,131     -17.2%    11,510    15,490    -25.7%

  G-CLASS              153      345     -55.7%       728     1,350    -46.1%

  GRAND TOTAL       19,167   18,074       6.0%    88,655    86,768      2.2%