As a matter of fact, the descending spiral has begun in the past several months but became truly alarming in the last month of 2008. Statistics show Mercedes-Benz managed to sell about 18,507 new units, meaning 32.1 percent less in comparison to December 2007. As for the whole year sales, there is no bright perspective either, 225,128 new units found their first owner, sales dropping by 11.2 percent compared to 2007.
Over the year, Mercedes C-Class was the favorite car of the brand among American buyers as the German automaker sold 72,471 vehicles, 13.8 per cent more cars than the previous year. The M-Class SUV continued to be popular in the US as sales increased by 1.3 compared to 2007. 34,320 units of this kind were sold last year, while in 2007, Mercedes-Benz USA managed to sell 33,879 units.
However, what might worry the German car maker the most is the fact that no model of the luxury brand recorded high success in December 2008. The exception was the G-Class whose sales dropped only by 7.2 percent and could be easily labelled as the saviour of the company. The second model that didn't record extremely terrible sales was C-Class.
If you think 11.7 percent sales drop is gloomy for the C-Class, wait until you see the numbers for the R-Class. The last one didn't look like a popular choice among American drivers since sales for this model dropped by almost 60 per cent. Not encouraging at all!
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