Cars and Drivers

Sales of Mercedes, BMW and Lexus All Fall in April

courtesy of BMWUSA

Last month, the three leading makers of luxury cars each struggled to match numbers from April 2015. Typically at least one of them would have a month during which it outran figures from last year. The results may be an early warning that luxury car sales in the United States have peaked.

Mercedes sales dropped 0.4% to 32,291. This included sales of 466 for its tiny smart brand, down 2.9%. Mercedes was particularly damaged by sales of three of its best-selling cars. CLA sales dropped 20.6% to 2,121. Sales of its C-Class fell 15.2% to 3,645, and sales of the S-Class declined 34.2% to 1,329. The C-Class and CLA are the Mercedes entry-level cars. The S-Class is something of a flagship and carries a base price of $95,650.

BMW brand sales were worse in April. Unit sales dropped 7.4% to 24,591. This did not include sales of its Mini brand, which dropped 12.4% to 4,796. Much of the downdraft was caused by a drop in one of BMW’s best-selling cars. Sales of the 3-series fell 31.8% to 4,681. Sales of its popular X5 sport utility vehicle (SUV) fell 7.9% to 3,771.

The 3-series is one of BMW’s oldest models, and the most well-rewarded by car experts. It is among the entry-level cars for the brand, with a base price of $33,150.


Lexus is the newest of the three, introduced in the United States in 1989 by Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) as its luxury brand. Lexus sales were uneven. Its car sales dropped 26.4% to 9,884. Sales of its SUVs and crossovers rose 20.5% to 14,998. Car sales were cripple mostly by a poor performance of its IS, which dropped 13.8% to 2,654. SUV and crossover sales were helped by a 28.6% increase in RX sales to 8,767.

The 1% may have started to lose its appetite for expensive cars.

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