Bloomies Crowns Lagging Mercedes King Of The Luxury Pile, Thanks To A & B Class Sales

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

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.


“Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand beat sales growth at larger German luxury-carmaking competitors Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Audi AG last month as new versions of its A- and B-Class compacts attracted buyers,” Bloomberg says.

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
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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  • Cdnsfan27 Cdnsfan27 on May 13, 2013

    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....

    • See 12 previous
    • Mpresley Mpresley on May 14, 2013

      @corntrollio Maybe it's like the Lexus dealer here in town. Before you can even look at the car, you have to "take the dealership tour." First go by the short order snack bar, then run down the the mom's lounge with changing table and kiddie play area, then move on to the business lounge featuring PCs, Wall Street Journals, and free wi-fi for BYOD road warriors. Next, move on to the Lexus souvenir shop, the parts department, and finally a sneak peak at the service bays. All this takes about a half an hour to 45 minutes, all the time some smarmy junior sales toady is fattening you up with soda pop, bottled water and some snacks.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on May 13, 2013

    Q1 sales, as reported today by CNN Money: Tesla Model S: 4750 Mercedes S-Class: 3077 BMW 7-series: 2388 Audi A8: 1462

    • Corntrollio Corntrollio on May 13, 2013

      Those are pretty close to the numbers I reported the other day for prior years: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/05/the-mortal-sins-of-the-auto-business-new-car-brands/#comment-2048039 Audi A8 is still around 6000. BMW 7-Series is below 10K, so dropping below what it has been. S-Class is about 12K, which is about right. The Tesla Model S Performance probably splits the price difference between the A8 and the S-Class base prices, so it's probably around the price of the 7-Series. The non-Performance models are more like the price of a very well-loaded A6/5-Series/E-Class, so I'm not sure if A8/7-Series/S-Class is the best comparison or not.

  • Stanczyk Stanczyk on May 14, 2013

    CLA --> FWD , "korean design" .. hipster-mobile .. not Mercedes...

  • Bd2 Bd2 on May 14, 2013

    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.

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