BMW Leads Audi, Mercedes

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

You-know-what-eating grins in Munich: BMW outsold rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz around the world last month on strong sales of the new 5er and the new X1 SUV.

According to Bloomberg, sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models rose 20 percent to 129,014 units in November. Audi increased its sales a lame 5.2 percent to 87,050 units. Deliveries by Daimler jumped 14 percent to 112,300.

On an 11 month basis, Audi sold 1,003,900 units. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand increased sales 16 percent to 1.06 million units in the first 11 months. BMW is in the unassailable lead with 1.11 million units sold, up 15 percent from last year.

Bottom line: All three are close, but BMW will end the year again as the king of luxury in Deutschland. Audi is taking their old time in chasing BMW out of the passing lane: The boys from Ingolstadt plan to overtake BMW by 2015.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Dusterdude Dusterdude on Dec 08, 2010

    Daimler (Mercedes Benz) will pass BMW in 2011 "come heck or highwater"..

  • Rain Rain on Dec 09, 2010

    They build build good cars. The 135i is basically its own market, compact RWD sport coupe, the 3 is still the 3 and remains the top, the 5 is newly redesigned as is the X3. The X6 is just a monster but strangely appealing to some people, I don't know about the 7 and X5.

  • Davekaybsc Davekaybsc on Dec 09, 2010

    @JJ: I haven't seen track lap times for the M3 vs. RS5. I have seen them for the S4 and 335i though, and guess what, the BMW ain't faster on a track in the dry. It's way slower. AWD can actually help you on a dry race track, because you can get the power down much sooner coming out of a corner. It's the same reason why the Porsche C4S is faster than the CS. As fun? Maybe not. Faster on a track? Yep.

  • Brock_Landers Brock_Landers on Dec 09, 2010

    Germans know that You can buy Audi technology and interiors with much lower price, hence the huge success of Skoda in Germany. Audi is taking beating basically in all the tests made by German car magazines when compared to BMW. Last one I read was AutoBild - X3 vs Q5. Conclusion was that Q5 is a good car, but X3 in better in every aspect :) Basically the whole German market knows that.

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