Baseball Superstar Alex Rodriguez Joins Mercedes-Benz Team in Houston

SAN FRANCISCO, June 3 -- Baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez will be the owner of a new Mercedes-Benz dealership scheduled to open in League City, Texas, later in 2005, it was announced today.

"I've always been a fan of Mercedes-Benz," Rodriguez said. "I've owned several and, to me, they're the best automobiles in the world. I've been very fortunate with my success in baseball, but you always want to be looking down the road, planning how you stay at the top of the game whether it's sports or business -- or both. This dealership is going to be the cornerstone of my professional future."

Bob Neis, regional general manager for Mercedes-Benz USA's San Francisco region which includes 10 western states including Texas, said, "When someone like Alex Rodriguez puts his own money into a dealership, it's the ultimate endorsement. Then there's the location: the Houston market has grown exponentially over the past few years and that's something we want to address both in terms of the needs of our existing customers and in terms of bringing new buyers to the brand. Having someone like Alex -- with his energy, his passion and his following -0 will certainly benefit the Houston market as a whole."

The new dealership complements four established Houston-area Mercedes-Benz dealerships which include Mercedes-Benz of Houston Greenway, Mercedes-Benz of Houston North, Star Motor Cars and Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land. The new Mercedes-Benz dealership -- to be called "Alex Rodriguez" -- will be 20 miles southeast of Houston in Galveston County.

Rodriguez, the majority owner of the new store, will partner with Jerry Glauser -- an industry veteran who also owns an existing Mercedes-Benz dealership -- to form the management company which will run the dealership. Groundbreaking is expected to take place soon, and the facility will be open for business in the second half of 2005.

Houston is the fourth-largest city in America with a population of 4.5 million. From 1990-2000, the city's population increased 25 percent -- a percentage increase twice that of the nation as a whole. "More than one-third of the state's luxury car buyers are in the Houston area," Neis said, "and they like to buy Mercedes-Benz vehicles. We want to make sure they keep doing that, especially with so many new Mercedes-Benz models on the horizon."

Mercedes-Benz USA, headquartered in Montvale, N.J., is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz products in the United States. In 2003, MBUSA achieved an all-time sales record of 218,717 new vehicles, setting the highest sales volume ever in its history and achieving 10 consecutive years of sales growth. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found on the Internet at http://www.mbusa.com/.

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