Daimler bags five out of ten awards in the best commercial vehicles of 2008 event

Mumbai: Daimler AG's commercial vehicles comprising vans, trucks, buses and coaches have won the top position in five out of the ten categories in conducted by ETM Verlag's conducted ''The best commercial vehicles of 2008''. Around 8,500 readers cast their votes in the twelfth readers' poll  to pick out the winners among 162 vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter continued to be the favourite among the voters and retained its crown as the victor of all of ETM Verlag's previous readers' polls. This is also a reflection of the market success of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, for which production capacities in Düsseldorf and Ludwigsfelde are being expanded signi­ficantly.

Mercedes-Benz trucks came out on top in the heavy-duty construction category. The victory achieved by the dump trucks up to 32 tonnes is testament to the reliability, robustness and economy offered by the Mercedes-Benz Actros, precisely the qualities required for such applications.

The Setra TopClass 400, also a brand of Daimler AG, achieved top position in the high-deck touring coaches category. The second generation of the premium touring coach is currently on the market, and has now taken pride of place on the winner's podium for the fifth time.

In the regular-service urban bus category, Europe's most successful model the Mercedes-Benz Citaro emerged victorious. the bus has broken all records with more than 20,000 regular-service buses in just 10 years. With the latest ETM readers' poll, it has now topped the rankings for the ninth time. The victory in the midi-bus class this year once again went to the Mercedes-Benz Tourino.

The organisers of ''The best commercial vehicles of 2008'' readers' poll were the specialist trade journals ''Fernfahrer'', ''lastauto omnibus'' and ''trans aktuell'', which are published in Stuttgart, together with engineers of Dekra AG.