MBUSA Reports September 2003 Sales of 17,234

Mercedes-Benz Year-to-Date Sales Up 3.7 Percent

MONTVALE, N.J., Oct. 1 -- Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) reported September sales of 17,234 vehicles, pushing the company's volume for the first three quarters of the year to 159,447. This represents an increase of 3.7 percent over last year's record-setting pace and sets the best year-to-date sales on record.

Passenger car sales were particularly strong with a five percent increase for the month and an 11.7 percent increase for the year-to-date. As a group, the high-end Mercedes-Benz model lines -- CL-, SL- and S-Class -- saw a 13.6 percent increase in sales for the month. The company's high-performance AMG models as a group posted an outstanding increase of 70.9 percent for the year- to-date (8,027 vs. 4,697 units).

Separately, through its Starmark pre-owned vehicle program, MBUSA recorded an increase of 35.6 percent for the month with 4,354 units sold and growth of 22.5 percent for the year-to-date with 39,551 units sold.

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

  C-CLASS TOTAL          4,885    4,810      1.6%   50,546   48,998     3.2%

  E-CLASS TOTAL          4,623    4,397      5.1%   39,037   25,706    51.9%

  S-CLASS TOTAL          2,025    1,622     24.8%   15,981   14,534    10.0%

  CL TOTAL                 213      205      3.9%    2,597    2,855    -9.0%

  SL TOTAL               1,062    1,079     -1.6%    8,891   10,045   -11.5%

  CLK TOTAL              1,404    1,371      2.4%   14,229   13,279     7.2%

  SLK TOTAL                529      549     -3.6%    4,863    6,449   -24.6%

  M-CLASS TOTAL          2,324    3,196    -27.3%   21,942   29,443   -25.5%

  G-CLASS                  169      251    -32.7%    1,361    2,383   -42.9%

  GRAND TOTAL           17,234   17,480     -1.4%  159,447  153,692     3.7%