Bloomies Crowns Lagging Mercedes King Of The Luxury Pile, Thanks To A & B Class Sales
Our cross-cultural adviser, showing a little A-Class
Bloomberg relentlessly covers a fight very few care about: Who sells the most “luxury cars?” Never mind that the only way to win this is to sell more, what do they call them, “approachable” cars. Which Bloomberg’s latest dispatch from the upper class struggle aptly proves.
Global deliveries by Mercedes were up 12 percent YoY to 116,566 in April, says Bloomies. Bimmer sales rose 7.5 percent to 130,598 units, Audi increased its sales 6.6 percent to 133,500. In case you are wondering how come Daimler can be king of the luxury hill if it sells fewer units than BMW and Audi: Bloomberg says their “sales growth” was better, not the overall volume. I see. Anything to talk up a race nobody is watching.
This opens great opportunities in the luxury market. A niche player, say Koenigsegg, Mitsuoka, or, God forbid, Spyker, sells two a month instead one, or none, thereby increasing their sales volume by 100 percent or more. Worth a try.
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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As a Mercedes-Benz salesperson I really don't want us chasing the luxury sales crown, especially if it comes at the expense of gross. My dealership sold the most units in Florida last month, and it is nice to do that once, but of course our GM wants it every month. I am sure that it brings the dealership some impressive volume bonuses but as a salesperson it galls me to sell a $70,000 automobile for a mini. It takes hours to properly present a Benz, particularly to a customer new to the brand, then we negotiate away our profit, send them to F&I where they take most of it back, then another hour for delivery....and God help you if your CSI surveys average less than 950 out of 1000 because then you lose your volume bonus. I make a good living, I take great care of my customers, but it does get harder every year....
Q1 sales, as reported today by CNN Money: Tesla Model S: 4750 Mercedes S-Class: 3077 BMW 7-series: 2388 Audi A8: 1462
CLA --> FWD , "korean design" .. hipster-mobile .. not Mercedes...
The overall luxury sales crown is less impressive than the no. of vehicles a luxury auto-automakers sells at the higher end of the market (say $50k and up). Was Lexus padding its sales figures with the ES and RX really that impressive when GS sales were dismal? MB still commands the higher end of the market with the E Class, S Class and its lineup of larger CUVs, so that is more impressive than having the overall sales crown.