Local plant has produced 50,000 units of the new C-class with plant manager confident that plant will remain busy.

The US car market "has been scary the last two months", following the subprime crisis which has gripped global financial markets, says Mercedes-Benz cars divisional manager Eckart Mayer.

Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) exports C-Class passenger cars to the US from its East London plant, in the Eastern Cape.

However, Mayer says September and October have been extreme months, and that the jittery US car market should recover.

He notes that the South African C-Class has received a good response from the discerning US market and that he is confident the East London plant "will remain busy".

One year into the model life of the new C-Class, MBSA has sold 20 000 units locally (at the end of August), with 30 000 cars exported to the US at the end of September.

MBSA president and CEO Dr Hansgeorg Niefer says the local arm of the German vehicle maker has been "more resilient than most" during the current global and local market slump, owing to "good products, and good market acceptance of our products".

However, he warns that MBSA will not achieve its original, higher local sales target for 2008, but notes that the company should "manage to keep to last year's sales figures".

Mayer adds that the volatile rand has caused havoc with vehicle pricing.

Year-to-date, MBSA has increased car prices, on average, by 8% to 10%, while another increase of between 4% and 5% is possible in December.

"The rand ended 2007 at R9,60 to the Euro, then moved to more than R11, and now stands at more than R13 to the Euro.

"We don't like to increase prices, but we simply can't carry the cost of these currency movements.

"If the rand/Euro exchange rate remains above R13, we'll have to increase prices again in the first quarter of 2009."

Niefer also notes that MBSA is always looking for new customers, and the black middle class is one of those targeted as the company looks to expand.

"We aim to be the leader in this market," he says.