Al Katz has been with Mercedes-Benz USA for 18 years and served in various managerial roles throughout his nearly two decades with the company.

And on Jan. 1, he became the new general manager of pre-owned, remarketing & fleet operations for Mercedes.  

That includes the popular certified pre-owned segment, and in an emailed Q&A, Katz shared some of his targets for CPO.

“Our primary goal is to deliver an exceptional customer experience by providing the industry leading CPO program for the No. 1 luxury import brand in the U.S,” Katz said.

“We want to grow Mercedes-Benz share of voice in an extremely competitive pre-owned marketplace to increase awareness of the value and affordability of Mercedes-Benz and the benefits of certified pre-owned, including a comprehensive inspection by factory trained technicians, genuine Mercedes-Benz parts and our industry-first unlimited mileage warranty,” he said.

“If the customer is thrilled with their ownership experience, loves their car and recognizes the value in Mercedes-Benz products, the likelihood of brand retention increases. By achieving these goals, we optimize residual values, which aids in the success of selling new Mercedes-Benz vehicles.”

During his time with MBUSA, Katz has been a market manager, a region aftersales manager for five years, a region pre-owned manager for two years and area manager for five years. For all of those posts, he was based out of the Central Region in Chicago.

For the past year-and-a-half, Katz has been the department manager of retail vehicle distribution at the Atlanta headquarters.

He enters his new position following Mercedes’ best-ever year in the CPO segment, according to Autodata Corp. The company sold 123,134 certified vehicles last year, a 2.3-percent improvement.

“We are constantly reviewing ways to enhance our CPO offerings — and making sure our dealers are in position to ensure retail success. Our greatest opportunity is creating awareness to inform prospective clients of the value proposition that Mercedes-Benz vehicles offer, being affordable to own and operate,” Katz said.

“We are creating this awareness with our comprehensive media plan which covers traditional mediums and is expanding into more contemporary communications channels. Additionally, we offer ongoing training for our dealerships on the benefits of CPO for both dealers and customers,” he said.

“In summary, Mercedes-Benz certified pre-owned is in an excellent position for continued success in this competitive marketplace,” Katz said. “The momentum driving this legendary brand is three-fold: sensational products, professional and engaged dealer partners, and a CPO warranty that provides unlimited mileage and unlimited confidence to our customers.”