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The Five-Year Running Best Selling Premium Vehicle in the US Is BMW’s 3 Series

BMW managed to sell an unbelievable 2 million cars last year, breaking a record that nobody expected to be taken down so early. The Germans themselves initially thought that they would reach this figure in 2016 but a steady rise in demand helped them reach it 2 years earlier.
bmw f30 3 series 1 photo
Photo: bmw
The main driver behind this incredible result is the company’s best selling model, the 3 Series. Since BMW decided to call the Coupe model ‘4 Series’ the sales of the two are combined. As it turns out, the 3 Series is also the best selling premium car in the US, five years running.

According to TTAC, the numbers are pretty clear: the 3 Series hasn’t been outsold since 2009, accounts for 40 percent of BMW’s US sales and was the 16th best-selling car in the US last year.

Those are impressive stats, by far, especially considering the cheaper premium alternatives that have been recently introduced by the company’s main rivals, Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

With 142,232 units in total, the 3/4 Series sales are way above what the runner-up managed, the Lexus RX. This was the second best-selling premium car in the US, with 107,490 units.

Some might claim that the comparison wouldn’t be fair because those 142,232 units are comprised of sales of the 3 Series Sedan, Touring, GT and the 4 Series Coupe, Gran Coupe and Convertible. However, if we’re to leave out the Gran Coupe and the GT (that are not necessarily traditional 3 Series body styles) we’d still end up with roughly 125,000 units sold, more than enough to leave the Lexus far behind.

In the meantime, the German competition still struggles to sell, the brand new C-Class account for 75,065 units last year, admittedly due to the generation change.
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