With the year almost three-quarters over, Mercedes-Benz is feeling increasingly confident that it's going to emerge as the nation's best-selling luxury brand.But only because Mercedes has a secret weapon: its Sprinter van, a growing favorite of plumbers and luxury motor home converters alike.
As close sales battles go, the Mercedes vs. BMW face-off is right up there. At the end of last month, Mercedes had sold 138,759 vehicles so far this year. BMW had sold 135,114, sales tracker Autodata says.
Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Ernst Lieb predicted to reporters at a lunch during the Quail motorsports gathering near Carmel, Calif., over the weekend that his brand will finish first. And best of all for the brand, he thinks that Mercedes can show a double-digit sales increase. It's going to be close. As of last month, the brand's sales were up 9.8% from last year, according to Autodata. The big unknown is the gyrating stock market, a critical factor for Mercedes' upscale buyers.
Mercedes' secret weapon, the Sprinter van, was a popular product of parent Daimler in Europe. When Daimler owned Chrysler, it was imported to the U.S. as the Dodge Sprinter. When Daimler broke off its Chrysler relationship, it kept the Sprinter van as part of the Mercedes line.
It's a wonderfully practical vehicle -- hardly anything in the luxury class of a Mercedes -- but if it helps sales, so much the better.
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