Are South African Buyers Suckers For Cheap Luxury? Mercedes-Benz Seems To Think That SA Consumers Are Going Green..

It’s been said that South African consumers are becoming more ‘eco-friendly’, as they are purchasing greener vehicles. For instance, Mercedes-Benz has said that they have started selling a lot of BlueEFFICIENCY models to the general public.

“To this end Mercedes-Benz Cars is pleased to report year-to-date sales of the C-Class C180 Kompressor BlueEFFICIENCY model of 3 481 units which amount to 33 % of the local C-Class sales,” says Eckart Mayer, Divisional Manager at Mercedes-Benz South Africa.

Despite the chance that SA citizens might be turning green, it could also be that consumers are only buying the bottom-end Mercedes-Benz products for status. Example — majority of BMW’s, as well as Merc’s on the roads are either 320i’s, or C180 models. These models simply show style, with a bottom-end price tag. Many people see the big name branded cars as something extraordinary over something simple with full specification.

However, that is our take on the situation where Mercedes-Benz are reporting otherwise. The company has said that the total C-Class sales for October, 2009 reached 1010 units and this represented 43% of the sales in the medium luxury segment.

Mercedes-Benz sold 69 E200 CGI BlueEFFICIENCY models during this period, where the total E-Class sales was set at 232 units. In a way this report justifies what we said above, because if a consumer is willing to pay the extra for the E-Class, they are more likely to get a higher ranged model, i.e. it’s not exactly just for status — and it won’t be a BlueEFFICIENCY model.

The CO2 emissions current 4-cylinder BlueEFFICIENCY models:

C180 Kompressor BlueEFFICIENCY

6-speed manual transmission g/km 159 – 173
5-speed automatic transmission g/km 169 – 183

E200 CGI BlueEFFICIENCY

5-speed automatic transmission g/km 177 – 184

Mercedes-Benz Faces A 9.6 Percent Sales Drop When Compared To Sept. 2008

Mercedes-Benz South Africa Is Off To A Good Start In 2010

Mercedes-Benz Has Their E-Class Ad Banned As It ‘Misleads The Public’

Mercedes-Benz Are Planning To Create A C-Class Coupe