Thus, Cadillac introduced the ATS which was designed specifically to take on entry level luxury cars such as BMW 3 series, Audi A4 and the Mercedes C-Class.

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But while the Institute ranks the car as a "top safety pick" based on its performance in front- and side-impact tests, it gave the 2012 Mercedes C-Class a "poor" grade in the new small-overlap test.

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That's also more than double the number of A4s Audi will sell this year (and more than all the cars Audi will sell in the U.S. in 2003), 45, 000 more units than Mercedes has sold of its C-Class, and, although G35 sales have nearly doubled in 2003, they still lag 3 series numbers by nearly 45, 000 cars.

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In December workers at Mercedes's Sindelfingen factory near Stuttgart went on strike after the company said it would shift production of its C-Class cars to Alabama, so Mercedes promised to maintain employment at the plant until 2020.

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Detroit optioned C Ramon Cabrera and INF Dixon Machado to Double-A Erie, and RHP Melvin Mercedes to Class-A Lakeland.

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