Surging Small Luxury SUVs Aren't The Major Players Yet

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

The rise of the small luxury crossover is undeniable, not just based on the most recent evidence available. U.S. sales of premium brand small utility vehicles rose 17.9% to 23,776 units in November 2014, an increase of 3615 units compared with November 2013. Much of that improvement was powered by the smallest of small luxury brand crossovers: the Audi Q3, BMW X1, and Mercedes-Benz GLA, sales of which grew to 4963 units from the 2364 generated by the X1 a year ago.

Up a notch in size/price/prestige, the Acura RDX-led category (which was topped by the Audi Q5 in each of the last three months) was up just 5.7% in November 2014, not hugely superior to the gains made by the overall industry, which rose 4.6%. But this class of SUV/crossover is up 17.8% over the span of the last eleven months. Combined with the aforementioned trio of underlings, they’ve grown 17.7% to 222,844 units.

Clearly, this is a growth market with untapped potential. These are the ess-you-vees of tomorrow, despite lacking (for the most part) off-road credentials, significant ride height, or superior utility compared with conventional, nearly nonexistent small wagons.

Skewed by the freshness of the small luxury crossover idea and the inherent eye-catching nature of new product entrants, your eyes tell you that these vehicles are popping up on every street corner with alarming frequency, but their four top-selling big brothers are still selling more often.

More often than all the small luxury crossovers combined. In November, the Mercedes-Benz M-Class enjoyed its best month since December 2011 with 5190 sales, 1006 more than the figure generated by the top-selling small luxury crossover, the Audi Q5. But the M-Class was by no means the top-selling premium brand utility vehicle. Acura sold 5210 copies of their MDX. Lexus, during a month in which the NX debuted with its first late-in-the-month 22 sales, sold 9592 RXs in November. Throw in the BMW X5 and we have a total of 24,549 sales, 773 more than the total achieved by 15 different small luxury crossovers: RDX, Q3, Q5, X1, X3, X4, QX50, LR2, Evoque, NX, MKC, GLA, GLK, Macan, and XC60.

Through the first eleven months of 2014, the larger quartet (up just 1% in November) is up 7.3% to 234,741 units. The smaller roster is up 17.7% to 222,844 units, powered forward by new additions like the Q3, X4, MKC, GLA, and Macan.

The long-established RX has historically not been much larger or much more expensive than the “traditional” small players – it’s only 5.2 inches longer than the Audi Q5 and its base price is only 5.3% higher at this moment – but it offers far greater cargo capacity than the Audi. On the same note, the Cadillac SRX (which trailed the M-Class and X5 in November but leads both Germans through eleven months) is only a half-foot longer than the BMW X3. But the SRX comes standard with a 308-horsepower V6, while four-cylinder turbos are the norm in the smaller group.

Regardless of whether the dimensional differences are modest or massive, we have an established group which has slowed considerably and an ankle-biting group full of relative newbies capable of grabbing attention. The newcomers are surging, but they’re not yet as popular. Not nearly as popular, in fact, as we haven’t even taken into account a flock of extras which add a large number of sales to the larger institution. The Audi Q7, Infiniti QX60, Land Rover Range Rover Sport, Lexus GX, Lincoln MKX, and Porsche Cayenne combined for another 11,089 November sales.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Plee Plee on Dec 10, 2014

    I saw an Lincoln MKC the other day on I40, that is a really good looking vehicle. This Luxury Small SUV category will grow very rapidly I predict.

    • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Dec 10, 2014

      Was Matthew McConaughey driving it? Or maybe some other celebrity parodying him?

  • Petezeiss Petezeiss on Dec 11, 2014

    Meantime, over here in Bugtussle where the little people sweat and grunt through our self-absorbed, comic lives, I seen me a breathtaking example of what I'm gonna call luxury yesterday. A simple, cockroach-common CR-V that must have been on its maiden way home from the dealership flashed by the rest of us chalk & mud plastered lumpen in a limousine black that was virtually steaming with newness and posh. It was like seeing a Bösendorfer Imperial Grand in the furniture section of a Goodwill store, such was its contrast to the rest of our thoroughly slushed-up cars be they Accura or Astra. I've never much cared for the current CR-V or black paint before, but for my personal rut on this planet, *that* was luxurious. Any more luxury for me and I'd get diarrhea.

    • See 2 previous
    • Lie2me Lie2me on Dec 11, 2014

      @petezeiss Go get your car washed, you'll feel better

  • Master Baiter "That said, the Inflation Reduction Act apparently does run afoul of WTO rules..."Pfft. The Biden administration doesn't care about rules. The Supreme Court said they couldn't forgive student load debt; they did it anyway. Decorum and tradition says you don't prosecute former presidents; they are doing it anyway. They made the CDC suspend evictions though they had no constitutional authority to do so.
  • 1995 SC Good. To misquote Sheryl Crow "If it makes them unhappy, it can't be that bad"
  • 1995 SC The letters on the hatch aren't big enough. hard pass
  • Ajla Those letters look like they are from AutoZone.
  • Analoggrotto Kia EV9 was voted the best vehicle in the world and this is the best TOYOTA can do? Nice try, next.
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