Mercedes-Benz began 2003 with a new sales record, selling 81,100 passenger cars in January 2003 compared with 80,300 in January 2002. In the same month, 6,000 smarts were also sold wordwide, taking the Mercedes Car Group total to 87,100.

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US sales in January increased 4% to 15,700 while, in Asia, Mercedes-Benz claimed to have posted the best January sales figures in its history — 8,400 units, or an increase of 33%on January 2002. The largest national market in Asia for Mercedes-Benz is Japan, where sales increased 15% to 3,200 vehicles.

Sales in Western Europe varied greatly from country to country in January. Sales in Italy (8,000 cars) and France (3,400) set new records in spite of negative market developments, but Mercedes-Benz was unable to buck the negative market trend in Germany, where January passenger car sales of 20,300 vehicles were 6% lower than in the prior year. This decline was in part due to the lower number of working days in January 2003 as compared to January 2002.

Mercedes claims that, in the nearly six months since its launch in all markets, the redesigned E-Class saloon has continually improved its leading position in the upper-range segment, and today has a world market share of more than 30% but the company has not provided comparative figures for prior years. In January, 19,900 E-class were delivered throughout the world, 4,400 of them in the US.

Meanwhile, the redesigned E-Class estate car, which debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit at the beginning of the year, will go on sale in March.

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A total of 5,900 S-class saloons were delivered around the world in January, a 23% improvement on the figure for January 2002 and perhaps reflecting the line’s recent update.

Mercedes claims world market leadership in both the 12-cylinder and diesel luxury saloon sub-segments with the diesel S-class taking a world market share of over 70%.