German car giant posts 16% rise in MidEast sales

Mercedes-Benz Middle East and Levant has announced 2012 as its best ever sales year on record with regional sales up 16.7 percent on 2011.

The luxury German car maker said it had smashed its previous best sales year record set in 2008 and closed the year with 15 consecutive months of double digit growth.

It said SUV sales in the region rose by 38 percent compared to 2011 while the top of the range G-Class saw sales increase by 74 percent.

The high performance Mercedes-AMG division also stormed to a best ever annual result with sales up by 80 percent compared to the previous year.

Mercedes-Benz added in a statement that it sold more than 15,000 units of its E-Class models in the region for the first time.

The company said distributors in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq recorded "unparalleled yearly sales success".

Frank Bernthaler, director, Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz Cars, Middle East & Levant said: "By working closely with our long standing partners in the region to deliver exciting new vehicles and an enhanced customer experience, we continued the momentum built in 2011 to accomplish this phenomenal achievement.

"We can proudly claim 2012 as the Year of the SUV and Year of the AMG, and with the December launch of our unequalled seven seater flagship GL continuing to gather pace, we expect to continue to make inroads into the luxury SUV market in 2013."