Twenty millionth Merc produced

9 January 2002: As 2001 came to a close, Mercedes-Benz celebrated a significant anniversary: On the final day of production before Christmas, the 20 millionth Mercedes-Benz passenger car rolled off the production line in Sindelfingen. The vehicle was a C-Class Sports Coupé (above) in brilliant silver.

This is the second time that the long-standing Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen is celebrating such a major anniversary. Back in February 1988, the 10 millionth vehicle was manufactured after 42 years of production there.

Between 1993 and today, annual sales of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars have more than doubled, from approximately 500,000 to over 1 million vehicles. The C-Class and E-Class have made special contributions to breaking sales records in 2000 and 2001. Nearly 318,000 C-Class vehicles had been sold by the end of November 2001, up roughly 38 per cent on the previous year.

And the youngest family member of the C-Class, the Sports Coupé, is also turning into a bestseller. Since the introduction of this model in March 2001, almost 54,000 of these cars have been delivered world-wide.

January 2002