Mercedes Tops Lexus in U.S. Luxury Sales Race for Q1
If the current trend goes unchecked, Mercedes-Benz is poised to overtake Lexus as the luxury sales leader in the U.S. But the bad news for Lexus doesn’t end there, as it might not even end up in the second-place spot.
It’s still early to start making predictions, but with the first quarter numbers in, Mercedes has tallied 53,346 units sold, compared to 47,356 units for Lexus. And between the two rivals is BMW with 52,617 models sold – putting the German rival just 729 vehicles short of Mercedes.
BMW is currently on the biggest tear of the group, with sales rising 12 percent in March, while Mercedes saw a 9.4 percent increase, compared to Lexus with a 2.3 percent rise.
Stale models are doing their part to hamper overall Lexus sales, while the more significant short term problem remains the supply issues and factory closures in Japan, where Toyota’s luxury division builds all of its Lexus models – except the RX.
Lexus established itself as the volume leading luxury brand in the U.S. in 2000 and has held on to the title ever since.
[Source: Bloomberg]
With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. Find Colum on <a href="http://www.google.com">Twitter.</a>
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