In August, BMW’s luxury models have once again managed to beat rivals from Mercedes Benz and Toyota’s struggling Lexus division, holding onto its crown of top luxury automaker operating on American shores. This is the continuation of a trend which started out back in April and could see BMW ending the year at the very top of the charts.
The 5-Series four-door and X3 compact SUV have both held onto their strong position in the market, according to Bloomberg, helping BMW secure a 6.5 percent increase in sales over April 2010.
“This has been a very strange August for our industry with both difficult news and unfortunate events -- consumer confidence down and an earthquake, hurricane and floods in the Northeast,” Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW of North America, said in a statement.
Lexus stands to loose its position of top dog in the luxury world, something that has not happened for the past 11 years. Their new design language that debuted with the GS 350 is sure to help, but the crown looks sure to be lost for this year.
Mercedes also managed to top the Japanese automaker once again, with their sales totaling 18,477 units in August, an increase of only 1.9 percent compared to the same month of last year. This puts them just ahead of Lexus’ 18,103 units, but we have to also take into account the fact that the Japanese still have to deal with inventory problems due to the earthquake damage.
For the year to date, BMW sits firmly in control of their market situation, with sales increasing by 12 percent, while Mercedes reports a 6.1 percent increase. Meanwhile, Lexus execs are probably less happy with their 17 percent drop in customer deliveries this year.
The 5-Series four-door and X3 compact SUV have both held onto their strong position in the market, according to Bloomberg, helping BMW secure a 6.5 percent increase in sales over April 2010.
“This has been a very strange August for our industry with both difficult news and unfortunate events -- consumer confidence down and an earthquake, hurricane and floods in the Northeast,” Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW of North America, said in a statement.
Lexus stands to loose its position of top dog in the luxury world, something that has not happened for the past 11 years. Their new design language that debuted with the GS 350 is sure to help, but the crown looks sure to be lost for this year.
Mercedes also managed to top the Japanese automaker once again, with their sales totaling 18,477 units in August, an increase of only 1.9 percent compared to the same month of last year. This puts them just ahead of Lexus’ 18,103 units, but we have to also take into account the fact that the Japanese still have to deal with inventory problems due to the earthquake damage.
For the year to date, BMW sits firmly in control of their market situation, with sales increasing by 12 percent, while Mercedes reports a 6.1 percent increase. Meanwhile, Lexus execs are probably less happy with their 17 percent drop in customer deliveries this year.