October 2018: Mercedes-Benz USA

[William Maley]

Mercedes-Benz reports October sales of 27,537 units

• MBUSA posts 31,814, up 0.9% this month

Nov 1, 2018 – ATLANTA: Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) today reported October sales of 27,537 Mercedes- Benz models, a decrease of 4.9% from October 2017. Mercedes-Benz Vans reported best-ever October of 4,182 units (up 71.0%) and smart reported 95 units, bringing MBUSA to a grand total of 31,814 vehicles for the month (up 0.9%). On a year-to-date basis, sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles totaled 252,921, with an additional 32,205 units for Vans and 1,054 vehicles for smart, bringing the sales volume to 286,180, a decrease of 5.1% from last year.

"With increased availability of our MY2019 models over the past weeks, we expect continued momentum in the final months of the year," said Dietmar Exler, president and CEO of MBUSA.

Mercedes-Benz volume leaders in October included the GLC, C-Class and E-Class model lines. The GLC took the lead at 5,649, followed by C-Class sales of 5,581. The E-Class rounded out the top three with 4,186 units sold.

October sales of Mercedes-AMG high-performance totaled 1,000 units, with 21,738 vehicles sold year-to-date.

Mercedes-Benz Passenger Vehicles	Oct-18	Oct-17	Monthly %	YTD 2018	YTD 2017	Yearly %
B-CLASS	1	59	_	134	602	-77.7%
CLA	1,868	1,814	3.0%	19,016	16,506	15.2%
C-CLASS	5,581	5,996	-6.9%	47,833	64,946	-26.3%
E-CLASS/CLS	4,186	4,681	-10.6%	36,199	41,192	-12.1%
S-CLASS	1,486	1,228	21.0%	11,820	11,901	-0.7%
SLC	186	192	-3.1%	1,692	2,380	-28.9%
SL	218	331	-34.1%	1,787	2,406	-25.7%
AMG GT	79	245	-67.8%	1,286	1,144	12.4%
GLA	2,093	2,219	-5.7%	19,328	19,236	0.5%
GLC	5,649	4,245	33.1%	56,234	37,134	51.4%
GLE	3,671	4,817	-23.8%	38,288	43,858	-12.7%
GLS	2,142	2,920	-26.6%	16,547	26,381	-37.3%
G-CLASS	377	208	81.3%	2,757	3,519	-21.7%
TOTAL	27,537	28,955	-4.9%	252,921	271,205	-6.7%
Vans1	4,182	2,446	71.0%	32,205	27,673	16.4%
smart	95	140	-32.1%	1,054	2,775	-62.0%
MBUSA Combined Total	Oct-18	Oct-17	Monthly %	YTD 2018	YTD 2017	Yearly %
GRAND TOTAL	31,814	31,541	0.9%	286,180	301,653	-5.1%
1 Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner Sprinter and Metris Vans are sold and marketed in the U.S. by Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler Vans USA, respectively.

[smk4565]

M-B cars sold more in October than in September, but the weak spot is really the GLE and GLS which are pretty dated and I imagine maybe even out of production since they have already shown the new GLE that goes on sale in 2019.

Vans are on fire!

[ccap41]

Damn, rough numbers here as well. 4 out of 13 vehicles up + vans. 

[G. David Felt]

OUCH, So Commercial Vans save the day then only 4 of the brands multiple options are positive.

• G-class
• GLC
• S-class
• CLA

Be interesting to see what MB does over the next 12 months and how the EQC plays into this.

[balthazar]

Another month in the books, another 5% decline. That's the least amount of decline over the last 4 months, but it's still slipping.

[smk4565]

YTD Mercedes is the #1 selling luxury brand, about 4,000 ahead of BMW.  Even in a slump no one can catch them.  And I would expect an uptick with new GLE, CLS, G-wagon and A-class sedan going on sale soon; new CLA/GLA next year, EQ C next year, GLB and GLS maybe in 2019, that is a lot of new product hitting in the next 12 months.

[balthazar]

Significant declines in June, July, August, September and October. Running 4K units under the last 3 Octobers.
December is usually MB's best sales month; have to see if they car turn the ship around by year's end. I smell more incentives than usual coming...

[smk4565]

They don't need extra incentives, there is not a demand problem, their sales problem is not enough inventory.  Maybe they will put incentives on the remaining GLE/GLS during the winter to blow them out, but that depends on how quickly the new generation GLE hits dealers.

[ccap41]

14 hours ago, smk4565 said:

G-wagon

I would have thought with you being a Mercedes guy that you'd know it is "G Wagen". 

[G. David Felt]

57 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

They don't need extra incentives, there is not a demand problem, their sales problem is not enough inventory.  Maybe they will put incentives on the remaining GLE/GLS during the winter to blow them out, but that depends on how quickly the new generation GLE hits dealers.

Have to disagree with you at the dealers around here are flush with auto's, they truly are having a sales slowdown. Maybe peoples preferences have changed and MB is being seen as more of a Toyota style dealer not the Luxury only dealer. When you have large inventory of C Class and below on the lots with Commercial vans out front, this does not say Luxury.

[smk4565]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Have to disagree with you at the dealers around here are flush with auto's, they truly are having a sales slowdown. Maybe peoples preferences have changed and MB is being seen as more of a Toyota style dealer not the Luxury only dealer. When you have large inventory of C Class and below on the lots with Commercial vans out front, this does not say Luxury.

Here is an article from Automotive news from August 2018 that says Mercedes has a 45 day supply of cars, 2nd lowest of any brand, behind Subaru.  They have demand, they need the 2019 refresh e-class, CLS, A-class, G-class that are on sale in Europe to be at dealers here.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180813/RETAIL01/180819951/subaru-inventory-2018-u.s.

[ccap41]

19 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

They have demand

Or is that a "lack" of supply? I'm not saying that's a bad thing but they work hand in hand. 

[G. David Felt]

34 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Here is an article from Automotive news from August 2018 that says Mercedes has a 45 day supply of cars, 2nd lowest of any brand, behind Subaru.  They have demand, they need the 2019 refresh e-class, CLS, A-class, G-class that are on sale in Europe to be at dealers here.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180813/RETAIL01/180819951/subaru-inventory-2018-u.s.

If Demand was high or up we would not see a decline month over month in sales, dealer lots would not be as full and as you pointed out via the link a 45 day supply would be dropping fast. The story has conflicting info also as they talk about levels at this time being the highest in 5yrs, but 2nd lowest behind MB 45 day supply.

Without the supply on hand for each of the last 4 months, one cannot really tell if actual supply has dropped or MB due to trade wars and needing to find cheaper new sources has delayed rolling out the new models, or just what. There are many things that can affect days on hands.

Big noticeable facts is 4 months of continued sales drop and at least in the PNW, full lots of auto's just sitting around. That says something is not right to me and others.

[smk4565]

Mercedes is the #1 selling luxury brand YTD, they are down but they aren’t losing to anyone else.  It isn’t like these buyers are fleeing to somewhere else, they are more likely waiting for the model they want to be in inventory.  

The manufacturing and production people are the ones that need to step their game up to get all this new product out.

[A Horse With No Name]

3 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Or is that a "lack" of supply? I'm not saying that's a bad thing but they work hand in hand. 

Lack of cars sitting around sucking up capital is an excellent thing.

17 hours ago, balthazar said:

Significant declines in June, July, August, September and October. Running 4K units under the last 3 Octobers.
December is usually MB's best sales month; have to see if they car turn the ship around by year's end. I smell more incentives than usual coming...

Economy is getting ready to slow down and luxury purchases one of the first things to go imho.

6 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I would have thought with you being a Mercedes guy that you'd know it is "G Wagen". 

With declining sales apparently not enough G wagons are hitting the G spot.

Fritz needs to look for new ways to warm things up...

21 hours ago, balthazar said:

Another month in the books, another 5% decline. That's the least amount of decline over the last 4 months, but it's still slipping.

Luxury car market in general is taking a dump.

[G. David Felt]

2 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Lack of cars sitting around sucking up capital is an excellent thing.

Economy is getting ready to slow down and luxury purchases one of the first things to go imho.

With declining sales apparently not enough G wagons are hitting the G spot.

Fritz needs to look for new ways to warm things up...

Luxury car market in general is taking a dump.

We need a Poo Emojii for peoples quotes. Perfect for your post my friend.

???

Lol would be great to have the Poo emojii rather than a down vote. 

[balthazar]

8 hours ago, smk4565 said:

there is not a demand problem...

Let's review, month over month performance ::
June : down 10%
July : down 23%
Aug : down 20%
Sep : down 10%
Oct : down 5%

No demand issue?? You said you'd worry if it was 3 months in a row of declines, I count 5 above.

[smk4565]

5 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Let's review, month over month performance ::
June : down 10%
July : down 23%
Aug : down 20%
Sep : down 10%
Oct : down 5%

No demand issue?? You said you'd worry if it was 3 months in a row of declines, I count 5 above.

It is a bad run to be sure, but they are still #1, no one passed them after 5 crap months.  I would be more worried if they fell from #1, but the lack of 2019 models is what is hurting.  It isn't that people don't want their cars, although they are losing potential sales by not having product.

I just looked at the inventory of my local dealer, they have fifty 2019 cars on the lot:

14 E-class, 10 C-class, 5 S-class

7 GLS,  6 GLE,  4 GLC,  2 GLA

CLA, A-class, CLS, G-wagen, SL, AMG GT they have a combined 1 car, a CLS that is so new it doesn't have a picture or price.

They have nine 2018's left, so those are pretty much cleaned out.  Small SUV is the hottest segment, they barely have any.  The only things that seem well stocked are E-class and GLS.

 

[balthazar]

My local MB dealer has 257 2019s on the lot and 112 2018s. There's a glut over here.
They even have 16 2017s (mostly unwanted sprinters/metris', but there is one leftover S550 too).

Edited November 2, 2018 by balthazar

[G. David Felt]

Here is the lowest inventory level MB Dealership in Washington and it is by me Lynnwood. I would say 103 2019's in stock and 16 2018's is a heavy inventory. This does not say they are starving for product. I say they are hurting for sales.

[G. David Felt]

Seattle Dealership has a total of 193 - 2019 models, 97 - 2018 models and 2 - 2017 New auto's in Stock. Total 299 new auto's in stock

Tacoma Dealership has a total of 169 - 2019 models, 58 - 2018 models and 2 - 2017 New auto's in stock. Total 229 new auto's in stock

I say there is plenty of stock of new 2019 auto's, sales are missing.

[Suaviloquent]

You do all realize that MY changeover is occurring....and it’s expected to be selling 2018s out quickly at this time of year.

[G. David Felt]

4 hours ago, Suaviloquent said:

You do all realize that MY changeover is occurring....and it’s expected to be selling 2018s out quickly at this time of year.

Yes, it is a model year change over, but based on what has been posted, sales are not happening.

Let's review, month over month performance ::
June : down 10%
July : down 23%
Aug : down 20%
Sep : down 10%
Oct : down 5%

[Suaviloquent]

That’s just Tesla Model 3 taking more sales from all the luxury makes. Totally explainable.

[balthazar]

Model 3 would have to be moving 100s of thousands of units monthly, plus it's not getting cross shopped with upper tier lux models. Yeah- that's not the explanation.

[Suaviloquent]

You guys just have no humour in ye.

[G. David Felt]

9 hours ago, Suaviloquent said:

You guys just have no humour in ye.

It was a funny reply, I got it!