The Mercedes E-class has always been a big hit as the sales record of over 1.5 million units speaks for itself! Now for the new 2010 model, as it’s making the way to the showroom floor, so far they have received 50,000 orders! And it’s counting…

* German orders for saloon more than double vs Q1 last year

* Mercedes-Benz vehicle sales in March down 17.5 pct

* Rival BMW brand posts 17.0 pct decline in unit sales

(Adds details, background)

FRANKFURT, April 7 (Reuters) – Daimler’s luxury brand Mercedes-Benz received 50,000 orders for its new E-Class flagship saloon prior to its launch at the end of March, the company said on Tuesday.

“In Germany, bookings for an E-Class saloon more than doubled in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous year,” Mercedes-Benz Cars sales chief Klaus Maier said in a statement.

The previous model generation of the E-Class had sales of more than 1.5 million vehicles that included roughly 200,000 units of its estate version. Mercedes badly needs a success with its core model as sales continue to wither in the face of a sharp worldwide plunge in demand.

Deliveries of Mercedes-Benz brand vehicles dropped 17.5 percent in March to 98,500 units, bringing total sales in the first quarter to 216,000 — a decline of 25 percent.

Rival luxury brand BMW suffered a similar decline of 17 percent last month to 104,417 vehicles. Over the first three months, this translated to a drop of almost 21 percent to 277,264 units.

Audi, Volkswagen’s premium marque, is less dependent on the U.S. market and consequently has suffered only a 16.4 percent drop in vehicle sales during the past quarter and narrowed the gap to Mercedes to just 6,000 vehicles fewer sold in the period.

BMW’s shares were down 4.2 percent at 23.97 euros by 1058 GMT, while Daimler was down 1.9 percent at 22.515 euros. Volkswagen slipped 2.4 percent 233.32 euros.

source: Reuters