BERLIN — German automaker Daimler AG said Thursday that sales in its Mercedes-Benz Cars group slipped a relatively modest 2.3 percent in 2008 as the global economic crisis erupted, with deliveries of the ultra-compact Smart car spiking amid rising gas prices.

Sales in the unit, which includes the Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Smart and Maybach brands, fell to 1,256,600 cars in 2008 from 1,285,900 vehicles the year before, the company said.

Strong sales at the start of the year helped offset a weak second half, when markets worsened, chief executive Dieter Zetsche said.

"While we had a high growth rate in the first half of the year, the second half was marked by a very difficult market environment in the U.S., western Europe and Japan," Zetsche said in a statement. "Overall we at Mercedes-Benz Cars saw sales in 2008 in the range of the year before."

Sales of the flagship Mercedes-Benz vehicles accounted for the bulk of deliveries, but fell 5.4 percent _ to 1,121,700 cars from 1,185,300 the year before. Mercedes sales were down sharply in the U.S., falling 11 percent to 225,100 cars from 253,400.

The drop was partially offset, however, by record sales of the tiny Smart car, which rose 39 percent to 134,700 cars from 97,200 the year before, the company said. During its first year on the market in the United States the Smart sold 24,600 units, behind Germany's 32,000 and Italy's 33,800.

Stuttgart-based Daimler said it plans to introduce the Smart to China, Brazil and Denmark in 2009, and have an electric-powered model available by the end of the year in limited numbers.

The performance AMG group sold 24,200 cars, up 19 percent from 20,300 in 2007, while the luxury Maybach unit sold 300 cars in 2008. No Maybach figures for 2007 were provided.