BMW Tops US Sales in May, Beats Lexus

German manufacturer BMW managed to score the highest sales in the luxury vehicle segment in the US last month, beating Toyota's Lexus for the third month in a row. BMW sold a total of 18,383 vehicles and, despite the fact it means 28 percent lower than in May 2008, it is still above Lexus' 16,992 units sold (36 percent drop). Including MINI, BMW's sales in the US decreased by 28 percent in May.

Having been defeated once again, Lexus says such a ranking against BMW has never been its goal. “Lexus tends to be more of a family-oriented buyer, versus some of the BMW buyers that might skew a little bit toward the empty nesters that are at a different place on the wealth curve,” Craig Johnson, president of retail-consulting firm Customer Growth Partners was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Still, these results put additional pressure on the world's number one automotive manufacturer. Toyota is in danger of losing full-year luxury sales, following the posting of the first loss of the company in 59 years. For the five months that have passed in 2009, BMW is leading the race with 76,819 units sold, while Lexus has only 73,186 vehicles sold.

Lexus took Daimler's place as the number one luxury manufacturer in the US in 2000 and has lead in terms of annual sales ever since, according to Autodata Corp.

As the US registered the highest unemployment rate since 1983, more car manufacturers in the country posted declining sales in May. For luxury car manufacturers trouble still lies ahead, as, according to Johnson, customers are keeping "wallets closed right now".