Investigation: Sales figures of North America

The MB 140 SCHOOL isn’t an Encyclopedia, literally there is no hardcore statistics at all since Christian’s great mb-w140.de already covered most. However, the North America sales figures are not collected yet, which seems troubled tons of enthusiasts who interested in it.

Things happened in US market are always charming. But as the largest market of 140 in the entire world, any single article wouldn’t be able to completely cover any scope. A comprehensive sales figures statistics seems to be a good start.

Epistemology

The statistics of sales figures is targeting all 140s in North America version, this is the one of three official versions exist. The sale of North America version is limited to US and Canada. In first half of the article the statistics won’t sperate orders to two countries, but there would be a supplement in second half for the US market.

The sales statistics of North America is based on Model Year (MY) rather than calendar year. A model year is defined by the manufacturer, it unnecessarily connected with the calendar year because a new model year usually launched in the mid or late of the previous calendar year. The sales figures of calendar year could be not only interfered by delivery delay, but also the mix of predecessor and successor which is not related to this school. In North America market, the 140 has complete model year from 1992 to 1999, while the rest of world mostly only has model year from 1996 to 1998. Thus the discussion about model year perfectly fit the North America market.

This statistic first publicizes the models sold in each model year and the accurate sales (also production) figures. Based on the calculation of the average monthly sales volume, changes in sales volume can be observed. Supplementary MSRP and major change of model years are used as a reference for sales volume changes.

In case of the fluctuating actual prices and the huge presence of lease vehicles, a simple MSRP sum couldn’t reflect the performance of sales of each year, therefore the sales amount will not be discussed. At the same time, although many economic phenomena occurred in the 1990s, this statistics will not mention the reasons for the fluctuation of sales. The album History is focus on the authentic facts, all inferences will be compressed.

Methodology

Each figure in the statistics could be decomposed into every separate VINs, so it’s technically absolutely accurate. However, there is a common situation that the North America version is re-exported to rest of the world. The specific situation is not considered in this statistics due to the difficulty of calculation. It was defined as after sales behavior.

Due to the different length between various model years, a monthly figure is also given by average the total sales. Usually two adjacent model years won’t overlap too much, therefore the sales performance can be indicate by monthly figure more intuitively. The monthly figure is for reference only because the sales of a model year didn’t start on the first day of a month or end on the last day of another month. The figure of months is concluded by my observations of delivery date in a careful way.

The definition of delivery months range is the “major” months. The pilot vehicles and certification vehicles were delivered months before the launch, they don’t count. Those first month only delivered very few cars and those last month only delivered very few cars are also ignored. For example, it would be fair to divided a 12-months model year by 12 rather than 13, if the only 2 cars delivered in 13th month on its first day.

Note, the statistics from MB 140 SCHOOL is significantly less than what carsalesbase.com listed. We have different figures but similar trends. It’s hard to guess why they have more cars because all cars are here.   

MY1992

The $127,800 600 SEL is the only V12 model available in MY1992, a total of 1,112 were sold. The press kit from October 1991 says only few hundreds of 600 SEL would be delivered each year. Maybe they are modest because the launch of North America market is certainly later than Europe, which might reduce the sales figures of first model year. But congrats, it exceeded their expectations.

The figures of MY1992 looks more optimistic than it is, because as the first model year of the brand new S-class, massive vehicles for certification and marketing were added. Here by to make up, they are about 250 vehicles. Not a huge difference to the monthly sales, deduct 21 if necessary.

MY1993

Although the monthly MY1993 sales of full lines looks slightly decline 100 cars per month, sales of the $129,000 600 SEL was dramatically dropped. Only 546 were sold, which is not even half of previous year. The release of $132,000 600 SEC more or less changed buyer’s mind, but it was only 178 either. So the total sales of V12 in MY1993 is 724. Note the MY1993 is even one month longer than MY1992, but 35% less V12 was sold. The delivery of new-launched coupe began from December 1992, exactly the middle of MY1993 which made the SEC a 1993 1/2. That’s why the sales of SEC is low, and it affected the overall sales of V12.

MY1994

MY1994 is the worst sales year of the 140. All models significant dropped except the coupes. The coupes sold 4 times more than MY1993.This happened because most of the orders collected in MY1993 period cannot be delivered before MY1994 period. Considering the shorter model year, the figure of S 600 sedan still pessimistic. Although MY1994 is only 2 months shorter than MY1992, the sales figure is 231 against 1,112. The $133,300 S 600 coupe outranked the $130,300 sedan.

MY 1995

Initially the S 320 in MY1995 is only offered in long-wheelbase, but MBNA decided to bring the standard-wheelbase back in August 1994. The figure reflects longer wheelbase received its audience. However, the long-wheelbase $73,900 S 420 still dominated the family. Accordingly, the standard-wheelbase-only $65,900 S 350 Turbodiesel lost its share. The fixed-priced $130,300 S 600 sedan and $133,300 coupe wasn’t part of the success. Although interiors are elevated to a certain exclusive quality, only 1,209 combined sold. But the S 600 took its major position back.

MY 1996

The duration of MY1996 was compressed by the upcoming upgrade — MY1997.  The major technical upgrade in MY1996 without exterior change didn’t received the respect, only S 320 W and S 600 sedan create a better sales. The quit of S 350 Turbodiesel reduced full line sales figures.

MY1997

MY1997 launched the major exterior facelift of sedans and coupes, but the sales of sedans didn’t promoted much. The first facelift of coupes works on the $91,900 S 500. The sales of V12 also recovered with the rest of the family are under pressure.

MY1998

Mathematically MY1998 is the “rarest” model year in both total production or per month. It happened because the MY1998 only lasted 10 months and during the last three months, all MY1998 vehicles were produced together with MY1999.

MY1999

Apparently there are three months overlap between MY1998 and MY1999. I consider MY1999 is the exactly same deal with MY1998 except the S 500 Grand Edition. In rest of the world, MY1999 doesn’t exist. The appearance of MY1999 is to follow the tradition of US market that model year usually 3-6 months ahead of calendar year. If combine the MY1998 and 1999 it would be a 17-month model year, with monthly 1,418 units sold.

This monthly chart is redone with MY1998 and MY1999 combined. Compared to 1997 the full lines are continuous improvement.

About the well-known list

This article did not generate by a spark of hunch, it literally come up to stop the disturbance of some sort of incorrect informations.

The first time I saw the rumor that only 14 of 1999 S 600 were built was about 2018. I was buying a 1999 CL 600 been discussed by benzworld.org, the VIN of that car was listed in a post there. People talked about production figures and making a list of VIN, to prove if there were only 14 of S 600 or 15 of CL 600 in MY1999. These two figures are from an unknown source and has been proved by enthusiasts from 2006 to 2021 years. That post hasn’t been refreshed for a while but I keep seeing these two critical number in forums or auction sites time to time. And to my surprise it’s still the hit.

I consider such phenomenon in my own way. If someone needs help when I passing by, I might keep walking when it’s not critical and I’m busy. But, even that kind of negligible needs, if it appeared on my route dozens of times, I should step forward without anyone asked. As a believer I trust God’s instructions. The fact is people can decide for themselves how to spend their time, for example collecting VINs, in the past I spent 1 hour at least on it every day. However people wasting time based on incorrect elementary information is a direct loss, like proving an outrageous production figures list since 2006. Cheesy to say, time is money. Fundamentally, time is part of our life.

In this chapter a set of relative correct statistic are given to correct the popular internet version. Before that it’s necessary to explain the methodology again. There are several ways to calculate the sales figures, two rational methods are listed and explained.

1.Calculate by the model year of vehicles.

It is the method used for the first half of the article. Some people might disagree a MY1999 car delivered in 1998 could be called a “1999”. To one aspect it make sense, because the actual “pick up date” of the first owner isn’t the “delivery date” recorded in data card. There are two different scenes. First in the US, mostly dealers would ordered cars to their showroom then wait the first user show up. That wait could be long , sometimes cross a New Year, then a MY1998 sold in 1999 could be a “1999”. Or the second, the more regular situation is (as 6 North America cars I own or owned were), a MY1999 delivered, sold and registered in 1998.

But there is no way to track the actual pick up date unless all paperwork from all dealers are collected. For regular owners and enthusiasts and law enforcement, they prefer describe the year of their car with the 4 digits number on their titles, rather than the earlier or later calendar year to against the DMV.

2.Calculate by the order year of vehicles.

The order number can be read and refined to get the year that the order was placed. It sounds reasonable to be the best way but there are some uncontrollable exceptions. The order numbers are sometimes updated by MB sales system. For example, a MY1993 vehicle delivered in late 1992 was used for journalist, then returned and continue used as MBNA internal property, 3 years later it would be auctioned to used car dealer and the order number would be updated to a 1995 order. Some lease vehicles’ order numbers are also updated. So far I can neither recover the initial order number nor manually pick few hundred cars out and define their individual sales year.

The primary principle of method selection is feasibility rather than absolute perfection, apparently method 2 isn’t practical at this moment, so method 1 is chosen for a trail. During the trial calculation of MY1992 I would like to see the difference between method 1 result and internet version.

I had a not rigorous-search to trace the source of internet list, the earliest one I found is from 2004. I overview the list in different forums and they have the same data. Since that list refers to the sales figure of US, below is the comparison between “internet version” and MB 140 SCHOOL version of US sales figures from MY1992 to MY1999.

Note, MB 140 SCHOOL statistics would be North America figures deduct Canadian figures. Due to the complex of divisions of US market sales, it’s easier and more accurate to calculate this way rather than combine all regional sales figure together. The following is the first trial calculation of MY1992 from MB 140 SCHOOL by method 1, a necessary calculation process is as shown:

300 SE 5,056 North America deduct 280 in Canada=4,776
400 SE 3,874 North America deduct 228 in Canada=3,646
500 SEL 4,950 North America deduct 375 in Canada=4,575
600 SEL 1,112 North America deduct 65 in Canada=1,047
300 SD 1,205 North America deduct 70 in Canada=1,135

And the comparison chart:

MY1992

Two charts seems quite similar to each other except the original post of internet version don’t have the figure of 400 SE. This remind me another list posted on MBNA website some years ago, I remember there was such list very similar to my data but I can’t find it anymore.

MY1993

Two MY1993 statistics are also seamless match. There are two signs:
1.The internet chart isn’t a fiction, it also based on accurate information from MBNA.
2.The method 1 is proved to be the correct solution that also been used by the original source of interenet verions. It’s easier to use the method of the internet version to against it.

MY1994

Same as MY1994, you can trust the internet version if you are interested in MY1992 to MY1994.

MY1995

Here we have the first huge difference. The S 320 W sales figure of internet version is too low and the S 350 Turbo Diesel is too high. 425 of S 320 W is even lower than the 618 S 600. Also 4,342 is even more than the sum of the sales of S 350 from MY1992 to MY1995 (3,405). i can’t explain the S 320 W but if remove the second “4” in 4,342, we have same figure. It could be a mistake of copy and paste.

MY1996

The real difference starts here. Except the S 420 and S 600 coupe, two statistics are very different, S 320 V and S 500 coupe of the internet version are too high. Only the S 420,S 500, S 600 coupe are similar. There’s clearly a mix of authentic and untrue information here, it’s like a puzzle.

MY1997

Unlike the MY1996, the figure of S 500 coupe is too low here. Even though there are still a few pairs of figures that differ wildly here, the S 420, S 500 and S 600 coupe are still close.

MY1998

The S 420, S 500 and CL 600 are still close. These are the three correct figure since MY1996, the MY1998 inherited it.

MY1999

Unlike all the unusually high figures and correct figures in previous charts, all models of the MY1999 figures from internet version are too low. The critical part S 600, CL 500 and CL 600 are only 14,19 and 15. While the authentic answers are 247, 777 and 180.

Before MY1995, the two sets are almost identical, meaning we are on the same track. The main difference is from MY1995, sometimes MB 140 SCHOOL has more, sometimes internet version is more. Is it caused by different year division? In a word, is the sum of MY1995-MY1999 in two statistics are the same? Here is another chart to compare the sum.

The result is that the two sets of figures do not match. Is the MB 140 SCHOOL missing some figures? As mentioned, the method of this statistics is base on the vehicle version: North America. NHTSA strictly requires the import vehicles should meet its certification, and all qualified vehicles are included in this statistic. The extra figures of Internet Version are meaningless and can be regarded as invalid information.

It cannot be ignored that after MY1995, the two sets of data still have very similar places, such as S 420 and S 500, which may mean that the internet version is modified from the original data. Some of these modifications appear to be mistakes, and some may be intentional. It is suspicious that the production of MY1999 was significantly reduced, which seems to be the main target of this statistical revision.

There have always been doubts about the 1999 production in the past. An enthusiast report that a MBNA employee claimed 139 of 1999 S 600 were built. That is correct and incorrect. 139 is part of the actual figure. The US order are divided into three regions in the MB sales systems (at least in 140 era) and 139 is the biggest part. I’d guess the enthusiastic employee who offered that data ignored this forgotten fact. Actually the best way to refute the current popular online version, one only has to find the sales figures that MBNA once published. Hopefully that list will come up again and be widely circulated.

^{All investigations are based on limited information, please email me if you have doubts about the veracity of this article. If you want to quote the content of this article, please contact me in advance, please do not use my text for any commercial purposes.}