After German Primadonnas Submit, U.S. Light Vehicle Count Finally Official
Finally, a day later, the two German primadonnas, Daimler and BMW, handed in their homework, and America can get on with its life, knowing that Americans bought 1,243,784 light vehicles in December. This brought annual sales in the U.S. to the official total of 12,778,885 units, up 10 percent over 2010.
Now for the primadonnas.
In the luxury races, you must eliminate BMW Minis, and on the Daimler side Smart and Mercedes Sprinter vans.
Two days ago, Edmunds still had different numbers and said that “Mercedes-Benz is expected to pull ahead to finish the year over BMW by about 1,100 vehicles.”
For the first time, BMW can call itself America’s king of luxury. But is that an excuse for letting a whole nation wait a day?
December U.S. Light Vehicle Sales
(Complete table)
AutomakerDec. 2011Dec. 2010Pct. chng.12 monthData courtesy Automotive News [sub].
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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In the copy you say BMW sold 247,907. And that's what the chart says, too. Then you said that Daimler sold 245,192 Mercedes (although other auto industry sites say 245,231 for Mercedes and so does Reuters.) But the chart says Daimler sold 261,769 Mercedes. The chart separates Mini and Smart but doesn't separate out Sprinter. Did Daimler then sell 16,577 Sprinters in the USA in 2011? But the other sites (and Reuters) say that the total for Daimler (Smart and Sprinter included) was 254,460 for all Daimler AG/MBUSA sales. The 254,460 sounds more plausible given the figures for Smart and the normally low sales of Sprinters in the US (mostly ambulances.) You have a figure of 267,016 for all Daimler AG/MBUSA sales. I think your chart and your copy is incorrect for Daimler.
yeah, what's up with Sprinter? I personally think they are cool but the price is soo high and read a lot of negative stuff on your site. The drifting video is hilarious!