Mercedes-Benz Australia Has High Hopes For 2013 A-Class Range

Mercedes-Benz Australia says the rebirth of the A-Class range could see the brand's new entry-level model challenge the C-Class for outright sales volume.

On sale nationally from March 1, Mercedes-Benz also expects the A-Class to win a lot of conquest customers from other brands.

Currently, around 60 percent of A-Class pre-orders are from customers that are new to Mercedes-Benz. Of the remaining 40 percent, a number of them are previous C-Class owners.

Roughly 50 percent of pre-orders are for the A 250 Sport, and according to Robert Leigh, Project Manager for A, B and C-Class, the current order bank is for hundreds of vehicles - possibly over a thousand by the time the car officially goes on sale.

Importantly, the company's local arm is expecting no constraints on supply - at least initially.

“Supply is looking pretty good for this year, actually, so we’re confident we should be able to satisfy customer pre-orders,” said Mr. Leigh.

Jerry Stamoulis, Manager of Corporate Communications, added:

“We’re not communicating specific numbers, but we’re feeling a little bit better about our supply compared to last year.

“We’ve worked with the factory to get some volume off other markets, and so there will be a healthy supply over the next six months. But depending on demand [beyond that], that’s another story.”