Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  To kick things off this morning, DaimlerChrysler has taken a moment to publish details of how worldwide sales of the Mercedes Car Group's Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and smart brands fared for the month of April.

Unfortunately, sales at the Mercedes Car Group continued to stay in the negative, with the division delivering 97,800 units last month - a decrease of 3 percent when compared to April 2006.  Individually, sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand noted less of a decline, dropping 0.7 percent to 90,600 new units, while smart dropped off 24.6 percent, noting sales of 7,200 units.  On a positive note, year-to-date sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand are at the all-time high of 365,000 units, a 2.2 percent increase when compared to 2006's four-month YTD total; as a whole however, the Mercedes Car Group's YTD sales remain in the red, trailing 2006's figures by 2.8 percent.

To learn more about the Mercedes Car Group's April sales figures including stats for each of Mercedes' key global regions, keep reading for the official press release.



OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


Mercedes Car Group delivers 97,800 vehicles to customers around the world in April

• With 365,000 units, Mercedes-Benz sets new record for the first four months of a year
  
  
• 300,000th C-Class sports coupe delivered to customer
  

Stuttgart, May 07, 2007
The Mercedes Car Group delivered 384,600 Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and smart brand passenger vehicles worldwide in the first four months of 2007 (January-April 2006: 395,800). In April 2007, sales amounted to 97,800 units (April 2006: 100,800 units). The Mercedes-Benz brand achieved a new sales record for the period from January through April, with deliveries increasing by two percent to 365,000 units (January-April 2006: 357,300). In April 2007, 90,600 customers around the world chose to purchase a Mercedes-Benz model (April 2006: 91,300).

From January to April 2007, Mercedes-Benz was particularly successful in the upper-range segment, where sales of the E-Class jumped by 14 percent to 79,100 units.

Mercedes-Benz sold a total of 28,200 vehicles in the C-Class segment in April. The new C-Class sedan, which continues to be introduced throughout its main markets since March 31, 2007, had a very positive start in the first month following its market launch. In April, total sales of the C-Class sedan increased by 15 percent. The C-Class sports coupe meanwhile celebrated a new sales milestone, as 300,000 units of the model have been delivered to customers around the world since the vehicle was launched in March 2001.

Mercedes-Benz sales in the U.S. were up six percent to a record figure of 76,900 units through April. In the Asia-Pacific region, deliveries rose to an all-time high of 43,700 units in the first four months of the year (January-April 2006: 42,400).

Customer response to the new smart fortwo has been excellent in the first month since the vehicle’s official market launch. smart fortwo sales increased by 14 percent in April to 6,900 units. A total of 7,200 smart brand vehicles w ere sold during the month.

Overview of Mercedes Car Group Sales

* Mercedes-Benz passenger cars


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