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Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz Claim Premium Sales Supremacy, Both Are Right

The old apples and oranges debacle can apply to the way these two premium German manufacturers count the number of cars sold during the 12 months of 2016.
2017 BMW 7 Series 1 photo
Photo: BMW
Mercedes-Benz was so confident of its victory that it started celebrating even before the figures for December came in. That's because the three-pointed star brand had sold more cars in by the end of November than it had during the whole previous year. With December traditionally being a month with strong sales, it was believed nothing could go wrong.

And it didn't. At the end of 2016, Mercedes-Benz had delivered 2,083,888 cars, with the vast majority of them (nearly 900,000) remaining close to their home, in Europe. China came in second among the preferred markets with 472,000 units followed by the U.S.A. with 340,237 cars.

BMW, on the other hand, also claims to be the top premium manufacturer, and has the numbers to back it up. Do you spot the difference in their approach? No? OK, let's put it this way: BMW Group (emphasis on the "group" part) says it has retained the top premium seller crown in 2016 as well.

Looking at the numbers, it immediately becomes apparent that BMW is trailing Mercedes-Benz by roughly 80,000 cars globally. That's pretty close considering the Stuttgart carmaker has been spitting out one new model after another, and all good vehicles.

However, BMW Group has one ace up its sleeve, and that's its MINI brand. The former British company is doing a lot better than the closest thing Daimler has as an equivalent: the smart.

BMW's funky division sold more than double smart's figures, despite a 21 percent growth over the previous year for the latter. With just under 145,000 cars, smart is way behind MINI's 360,233 units, bringing the total figures to 2,367,603 for BMW (including a modest contribution of 4,011 from Rolls-Royce) and 2,228,367 for Mercedes-Benz Cars.

It seems highly unlikely that smart's sales will ever go up significantly, which means Mercedes-Benz is going to continue its growth at a steady pace if it wants to usurp BMW's (Group or not) title for good. Considering Daimler's main brand was up 11.3 percent from 2015's sales compared to BMW's 5.3 percent, that might just happen. Eventually.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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