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Mercedes February Sales on Par with Same Month Last Year

3 March 1999

Mercedes February Sales on Par with Same Month Last Year; Year-to-Date Results at an All-Time High

    MONTVALE, N.J., March 3 -- Mercedes-Benz of North America,
Inc. (MBNA) reported sales of 12,257 new vehicles during the month of February
1999, remaining on par with the 12,342 vehicles sold in February 1998.
Year-to-date sales were at an all-time high with a total of 24,482 vehicles
sold during the first two months of 1999, a 1.7 percent increase over the
24,062 vehicles sold during the same period last year.
    "We are on track this year in terms of building upon our record-setting
sales momentum of 1998," said Mike Jackson, president and CEO of MBNA.
Jackson added, "February sales are a solid foundation as we prepare for the
traditionally strong spring selling season which, this year, will be prefaced
by the launch of our new model year 2000 S-Class in March."
    Sales for the month were led by the award-winning E-Class model line with
sales of 3,470, an increase of 3 percent over the 3,369 vehicles sold during
the same month last year.
    The company's flagship S-Class/CL coupes showed a significant increase of
11.5 percent (884 vs. 793).  Sales of the legendary SL coupe/roadster models
posted a slight decrease of 6 percent (551 vs. 586) for the month.
Supply-constrained C-Class sales totaled 2,258, down 22.7 percent (vs. 2,920).
    Sales of the award-winning M-Class showed a slight decrease of 4 percent
(3,226 vs. 3,596).  The ML320 posted sales of 2,161 and the new-for-1999 ML430
reached 1,065 units.  The SLK roadster continued to climb, up 42.8 percent to
837 (vs. 631).  The CLK finished the month with an impressive 1,031 units,
compared to 447 last February.  The stylish CLK320 coupe came in at 339 units
while the CLK430 supercoupe and CLK320 Cabriolet both sold 346 units.
    On a year-to-date basis, the E-Class model line accounted for the largest
volume with sales of 7,113 (vs. 6,492).  C-Class sales declined from 5,968 to
4,075.  S-Class sales increased to 2,139 (vs. 1,889) while sales of the SL
dropped slightly to 1,089 (vs. 1,151).
    Year-to-date of the sales of the SLK are 1,607 (vs. 1,198); the CLK,
2,379 (vs. 877) and the M-Class, 6,080 (vs. 6,447).