Cars and Drivers

Is There No End to Luxury Car Sales Growth in America?

U.S. auto sales turned out to have an incredible month of sales in May. The news was good almost universally (except for the VW brand), but the luxury car market just seems to have no end in sight in North America. What we have not done was to break out sales prices and incentives in the luxury market as a whole, but Kelley Blue Book gave a figure that typical transaction prices were up over 2% in May.

What is obvious is that the luxury market just keeps on chugging higher and higher once you look at the sales data.

Can some of this be attributed to new model launches? In some cases. Still, the numbers just look strong by almost every account. We took a look at North American sales of Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Jaguar, and Land Rover for the month of May. Even the used luxury market looked strong when the companies discussed it.

Porsche said that its May sales of 4,609 vehicles was bumped by the mid-May launch of the 2015 Macan S and Macan Turbo (1,263 units). Porsche said that this beats last year’s record sales number by 17.3 percent. It was also the best ever sales month for Porsche in the U.S. Porsche even went on to say that its two-door sports cars and Panamera have continued strong sales performance gains from 2013, and that the demand for Cayenne still outstrips the supply. Porsche even went on to say that its Approved Certified Pre-Owned vehicle sales in May were up 17 percent at 994 units.

Mercedes-Benz said that May was the company’s fifth record sales month Of 2014, with its Mercedes-Benz brand sales up 7.7% to 26,617 units. Total sales were represented as being up over 8% to 29,570 units if you blend the Mercedes-Benz, Sprinter and smart model lines. The group’s top sellers in May were its C-, E- and M-Class model lines, with the E-Class up over 25 percent to 6,168 vehicles. Its high-end flagship S-Class volume of 2,173 was up over 82% from the same month last year.

ALSO READ: Everyone But VW Scores Strong May Car Sales

BMW Group U.S. also posted a record May for its BMW brand, in part from the launch of the BMW i3. BMW and MINI combined sales in May were up over 13% to 35,331 vehicles, but sales of BMW brand vehicles rose by more than 17 percent in May for a total of 29,602 vehicles. The BMW i3 has now officially launched, with its first month’s sales totaling 336 units. BMW Pre-Owned Vehicles also rose by 14 percent to 18,064 vehicles. Management even talked up this summer –

“This will be the summer of BMW with the new M3 and M4 on sale this month and the new X4 and 4 Series Gran Coupe coming in July.”

Audi said that this was its best U.S. May sales in the company’s history, and second-best any-month tally period – with it being the 41st consecutive U.S. sales record. Its sales rose to 16,601 powered both by the new entry-level model, A3, and by the brand’s high-end cars. Diesels accounted for 11.5% to 28.2% of sales.

Jaguar and Land Rover have shown that May sales rose 17 percent, to 5,840 units (according to USA Today) – for the best May unit sales report since 2007. The Range Rover Sport redesign had record May sales of 1,496 units for a gain of 35 percent. Sale of the crossover Range Rover Evoque rose a sharp 59 percent to 1,196 sales. Jaguar sales were up 14% in May, led by its F-series sports car coupe and convertible and by the XK sedan.

 

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