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Mercedes February car sales drop on weak Europe demand

Reuters / March 08, 2004

FRANKFURT -- Germany's DaimlerChrysler said on Monday that sales of Mercedes group cars declined 3.8 percent to 81,800 units in February due primarily to weak demand in Western Europe for its ageing product line.

February sales of the luxury Mercedes brand, which has been DaimlerChrysler's main profit driver in recent years, declined 5.7 percent year-on-year to 73,800 units, the world's fifth-biggest carmaker said in a statement.

Mercedes had posted record brand sales of 78,200 units in the previous year.

This decline follows a 10.1 percent fall in Mercedes brand sales in January as the car maker gears up for the launch of several new products to replace its older models.

Most of the drop in February resulted from weak sales in Germany and Western Europe, where the group delivered 6.6 percent and 3.4 percent fewer cars to customers respectively.

Overall vehicle sales of the Mercedes Car Group, which includes the Smart and Maybach brands, declined 5.9 percent in the first two months of the year to 158,500 units, the company said.

"Although sales are expected to fall slightly during the first six months of 2004 as a result of the model changeovers, this decrease will be compensated by increased sales during the second half of the year," the company said in a statement.

That's broadly in line with the outlook given by Germany's VDA automakers' association which expects sluggish car sales in Europe's biggest economy to pick up this year, but gradually.

On Friday, Bavarian rival BMW confirmed that the group as a whole saw unit sales rise 4.2 percent to 77,790 vehicles in February thanks to new models.