Mercedes-Benz sales up 13 percent on year in June

AP - Sales of Mercedes-Benz cars were up 13.2 percent in the year to June as strong demand for the premium brand in China and the United States helped drive growth, parent company Daimler AG said Monday.

Mercedes-Benz cars have posted a triple sales record of "best June, best quarter, and best first half of a year, the German manufacturer's parent company Daimler announced.The group sold almost 131,000 Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars last month, an annualised gain of nearly 6.5 percent, and 610,500 vehicles in the first six months of the year to post an increase of 9.7 percent.The second quarter saw record sales of nearly 330,000 autos, the result of growing demand in emerging economies led by China, along with sustained demand in the United States.

German car maker Daimler said on Monday that sales of its Mercedes-Benz cars rose in August, driven by strong demand on its home market.Daimler said in a statement it told a total 93,162 of its Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars last month, an increase of 7.4 percent over the same month a year earlier.Sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand alone grew by 7.9 percent, while Smart sales were up by just 0.5 percent.

Sales of Mercedes-Benz cars rose 13% as strong demand for the premium brand in China and the U.S. helped drive growth.

Based on the U.S. sales numbers reported at the end of 2012, BMW, excluding its MINI and Rolls-Royce brands, sold 281,460 cars and SUVs last year.

Many young consumers today are famously uninterested in car ownership. It’s just too expensive and too much of a hassle to own a car, they think, especially given the growth of the sharing economy, when everything from cars to designer dresses can be rented with ease. And if owning any old car is viewed as a pricey, unnecessary burden, then buying a luxury car would seem to be especially out of the question. But what if upscale luxury cars didn’t come with what we normally consider to be upscale, luxury prices?