The compact models thus played a major role in the most successful year yet in the company's history. Mercedes-Benz delivered 1,650,010 cars to customers (+12.9%) and thus achieved the fourth record year in succession. In 2014 every month was a record month - including December, with 163,171 units sold (+17.2%). The Stuttgart company ended the past year with the strongest month for sales and the best quarter (454,854 units) in its history.

Around the world, at the end of 2014 over a million cars of the new generation of compact models were in customer hands, including over 150,000 CLA models. The conquest sales rate for the CLA worldwide stands at around 50 percent. Like the CLA, the CLA Shooting Brake is built at the company's plant in Kecskémet, Hungary.

The biggest markets for the compact models are Germany, the UK and the USA.  The introduction of the new compact car models has seen the Mercedes-Benz brand become palpably younger in appeal - around the world, the average age of its customers has fallen.