Mercedes had tremendous sales in December selling 28,115 cars, helping them making it the 13th year of sales increases and the highest annual volume in its history. MBUSA sold 248,080 vehicles in 2006, a 10.5 percent increase over the 224,421 units sold in 2005. Much of that success is thanks to the new cars it has introduced this year, particulary in the ligh-truck segment where sales increased 69% from 41,252 to 69,163. The S-class along with the all new CL had much to do this years record, selling 92.6% and 48.2% more, respectively.

Sales of diesel vehicles at Mercedes-Benz, both CDI and BLUETEC, grew from 4,299 units in 2005 to 6,941 units in 2006, posting a 61.5 percent increase. Mercedes-Benz expanded its diesel offerings in the fourth quarter of 2006 to include SUVs (ML-Class CDI, R-Class CDI, and GL- Class CDI), and also introduced the cleanest diesel technology available in a passenger car through the Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC.

When you look at the numbers below, you might notice that sales were actually down in December 2006 compared to the same month last year, but that’s only because Mercedes had such record sales in December of 2005 that it was hard to top that. It seems that December, similar to other companies, is very good for Mercedes in terms of sales.

   Model      Dec '06   Dec '05   Monthly %   YTD 2006   YTD 2005   Yearly %

  C-CLASS      5,197     9,806     -47.0%      50,187     60,658    -17.3%

  E-CLASS      7,116     6,334      12.3%      50,195     50,383     -0.4%

  S-CLASS      2,987     1,912      56.2%      30,886     16,036     92.6%

  CL-CLASS       347       196      77.0%       1,312      1,320     -0.6%

  SL-CLASS       539     1,098     -50.9%       8,462     10,080    -16.1%

  CLK-CLASS    1,509     1,748     -13.7%      16,415     18,227     -9.9%

  SLK-CLASS      664       976     -32.0%      10,410     11,278     -7.7%

  CLS-CLASS      966     1,230     -21.5%      10,763     14,835    -27.4%

  R-CLASS      1,546     2,430     -36.4%      18,168      4,959    266.4%

  M-CLASS      3,889     5,340     -27.2%      31,632     34,959     -9.5%

  G-CLASS         18       122     -85.2%         587      1,334    -56.0%

  GL-CLASS     3,337       n/a       n/a       18,776        n/a      n/a

  SLR                                             141        200    -29.5%

  Maybach                                         146        152     -3.9%

  GRAND
   TOTAL      28,115    31,192      -9.9%     248,080    224,421     10.5%