AMG on brink of 10K sales milestone in Oz

ALL-TIME Australian sales of hotted-up Benz models from AMG will breach the 10,000 unit milestone next month as Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific prepares to rack up a record-smashing 2500 AMG sales this year alone.

Mercedes-Benz Asia-Pacific senior manager of public relations, product and corporate communications David McCarthy said at the GLA45 small SUV launch that he knew which AMG model will be the milestone-maker.

But he refused to be drawn on specifics, other than it was a normal customer order and not a specially commissioned vehicle.

AMG sales in Australia so far this year have exceeded 2000 units with three reporting months to go, putting Australia fifth in the world for overall volume and stealing an even larger march on rivals BMW M and Audi S/RS – both of which are experiencing respectable sales growth this year.

Mercedes-Benz is on track to sell 30,000 vehicles (including commercials) this year, with between eight and nine per cent of the total being AMGs, a proportion Mr McCarthy said the company was happy with.

Speaking with media at the Motorclassica event in Melbourne, Mercedes-Benz Cars director and Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific CEO Horst Von Sanden said Australia and New Zealand tend to alternate for the world’s first and second position in terms of AMG market penetration as a percentage.

“In New Zealand one car makes a big percentage difference,” he explained.

The C63 range accounts for a third of the 10,000 Australian AMG sales but since the outgoing sedan and wagon were discontinued in July in preparation for initial shipments of the new generation in mid-2015, the A45 hatch has stolen the sales lead this year, followed by the CLA45 sedan.

Orders for the new C63 stretch into triple digits, but Mr McCarthy declined to provide any more detail than that. However there are already 300 names on the GLA45, with the first 100 to be delivered by the end of 2014 and a waiting list stretching well into the middle of next year.

Mr McCarthy said the next most important car for Mercedes-Benz in terms of sales volume is the GLK compact SUV that should arrive by the end of 2015, which has been conspicuously absent from the Australian line-up for many years due to it being left-hand drive only.

He agreed this model, along with the new C-Class that launched here with the sedan body-style in August, will give Benz a crack at a position in Australia’s top 10 brands by sales volume, a list that included Jeep for the first time last month.

According to Mr McCarthy, three quarters of customers purchasing products from Mercedes’ compact range are new to the brand, with many of the remainder being existing AMG customers purchasing an alternative vehicle to sit alongside their V8 or V12 bahn-stormer in the garage.

Next year will see the arrival of the CLA Shooting Brake, the fifth member of the Mercedes-Benz compact family and Mr McCarthy said 2015 will be the year that “perfectly demonstrates” which of the four-cylinder AMGs is most popular as supply starts to free up and the A45, CLA45 and GLA45 all register their first full sales year.

In addition to the hotly anticipated C63, 2015’s AMG launch schedule includes the S63 Coupe in the first quarter (50 pre-orders), the Porsche 911-rivalling GT coupe around mid-year (100 pre-orders) and possibly the V12 S65 Coupe flagship if it sneaks into showrooms before year-end.

That and the promised freer supply of compact AMGs plus the C63’s arrival bode for another record-breaking year in 2015 for Affalterbach in Australia.