Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles Voted Number One in Readers' Poll

MULGRAVE, AUSTRALIA – June 18, 2009: Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles from Daimler AG have once again made it to the top in five out of ten categories in the ETM publishing house’s readers’ poll to find “The best commercial vehicles of 2009”.

This year was the 13th time the vote has been held. Nearly 9,000 expert participants in the survey of readers cast their votes in this year’s poll in which there were 167 candidates representing brands from a total of ten different countries.

“I am very proud that our Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles have done so well in the ETM readers’ poll.” said Andreas Renschler, Member of the Daimler AG Board of Management

We at Daimler are very happy that the well-informed reading public has voted for commercial vehicles bearing the Mercedes star” he continued.

This is now the thirteenth consecutive time that serial winner the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter has achieved victory in the segment “Vans up to 3.5 t”. This means it has won every single readers’ poll that has been organised by the Stuttgart-based publisher of professional journals.

The model-year 2009 Sprinter is now available with the new OM 651 diesel engine, which meets the Euro 5 requirements as standard.

At the heart of this enhancement lies the completely new four-cylinder diesel engine and the considerably reworked V6 engine

During the development stage, focus was on being as kind as possible to the environment by meeting the Euro 5 emissions level, plus a further increase in cost-effectiveness through reduced consumption.

The Mercedes-Benz Atego took victory in the category “Trucks up to 7.5 t”, with Euro 5 engines and hybrid drive being the all-important catchwords for the Mercedes-Benz Atego short-radius distribution truck for 2009.

Its success says it all: to date more than 250,000 Atego vehicles have been delivered to customers. Its major strengths include cost-effectiveness from fuel consumption to its resale value, high quality, including the cockpit, plus outstanding reliability.

The spectrum of vehicles available ranges from 6.5 t to 15 t, with increased load capacity up to 16 t gross vehicle weight.

Readers of the specialist publications from ETM crowned the truck model series the Actros as the winner twice over: in the “Long-distance transport” and “Construction trucks” disciplines: the new Mercedes-Benz Actros was the experts’ favourite commercial vehicle in the “Long-distance transport truck”; this “Truck of the Year 2009” is performing sterling service out on Europe’s roads ten thousand-fold.

The new Mercedes-Benz Actros vehicles took first place in the heavy-duty construction sector: the dump trucks’ win in the category up to 32 t confirms that the Mercedes-Benz Actros comes complete with the reliability, robustness and cost-effectiveness that matter so much when it comes to heavy duty work.

This year, the winner in the “Midicoaches” category was again the Mercedes-Benz Tourino.

The two-door, two-axle Mercedes-Benz Tourino midi-touring coach offers seating room for 38 passengers, meeting the increasing demand for easily manoeuvrable touring coaches used for carrying smaller travel groups.

No other midicoach boasts the Tourino’s winning combination of a rear engine and front axle with independent suspension plus a full range of safety equipment including the ESP® Electronic Stability Program

The readers of the publications trans aktuell, lastauto omnibus and FERNFAHRER once again voted Mercedes-Benz CharterWay the number one this year in the category “Rental/leasing”; no less than 10,000 people with a keen interest in this sector awarded the commercial vehicle service provider first place for the third consecutive time.

Their selection serves as a reliable indicator for the acceptance of the CharterWay brand’s image.

A total of 20 product groups, also including transmissions, tyres, filters, seats air conditioning/heating, mobile navigation and tippers were listed.

The organisers of the “Best commercial vehicles of 2009” readers’ poll were the Stuttgart-based trade magazines “Fernfahrer”, “lastauto omnibus” and “trans aktuell” in conjunction with engineers from Dekra AG.