Chart Of The Day: Luxury and Premium Brand Sales, July And Year-To-Date

by Edward Niedermeyer

August 11th, 2010 4:00 PM

BMW snagged the top spot last month, but Lexus and Mercedes are still battling for the top spot in year-to-date luxury brand sales. Lincoln and Mercury are running at less than half the rate of Buick and Cadillac, while Saab’s year-to-date number is nearly on par with its next-nearest rival Jaguar’s monthly number. Infiniti pulled ahead of Audi in YTD and monthly sales in July, as both brands prepare to overtake the canceled Mercury brand in the YTD sales race, and start chasing Acura. It continues to be a rowdy year for the luxury brands…

#Brands #ChartOfTheDay #Luxury #NewCars #Sales

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13 of 30 comments

Drifter on Aug 11, 2010

The fact that overrated (by press)/unreliable Audi trails both Acura and Infiniti proves that car buying public has lot more sense/knowledge than so called auto journalists.

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- BDB on Aug 11, 2010
  
  Acura is on the level of Buick and Lincoln, not Audi. For example, they don't have anything like the 7-Series/A8/S-Class/LS. For that reason I wish this monthly chart would be separated into true luxury brads (Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Infiniti) and premium brands (Buick, Lincoln, Acura, Saab, Volvo). Cadillac? I hope they'll be a real luxury brand in five years, but right now they're barely above Buick. They're just a premium brand until they have a real 5-Series and 7-Series competitor and ditch the low-rent SRX. A vehicle along the lines of the SRX would fit perfectly in the buick lineup, though. A shame they wasted it on Cadillac.
  
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- NulloModo on Aug 11, 2010
  
  Infiniti doesn't have anything like the 7 series/A8/S-class/LS either. The Q45 was really the only Infiniti I've ever been drawn towards, they should bring it back.
  
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- BDB on Aug 12, 2010
  
  NulloModo-- You would enjoy reading this then: http://www.beaterreview.com/?p=13 Actually that site in general is a fun read, with any review they do. Well-written and hilarious.
  
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- SomeDude on Aug 12, 2010
  
  @NulloModo You can still have the Q45... well, almost. It's called the Lincoln Town Car.
  
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- NulloModo on Aug 12, 2010
  
  BDB - Thanks for the tip, I've never seen that site before, it's great.
  
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Drifter on Aug 11, 2010
Acura is on the level of Buick and Lincoln, not Audi. For example, they don’t have anything like the 7-Series/A8/S-Class/LS. How many A8 did Audi sell? Rest of the Audi lineup is glorified FWD sedans mostly based on plebeian VWs (which by the way is getting the rear kicked even by Hyundai), same as Acura.

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- BDB on Aug 12, 2010
  
  How many LS 400s does Lexus sell? Their best-selling models are glorified plebeian sedans and crossovers based on Toyota platforms. See how easy that was? It's not how many the sell--it's the fact that they HAVE world-class, range-topping cars. That's a big part of what makes a luxury brand. And it's what Cadillac sadly lacks.
  
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- George B on Aug 12, 2010
  
  BDB, I'd at least give GM luxury car credit for the CTS in sedan, coupe, and station wagon form. I'm not attracted to the CTS, but I respect the fact that the CTS is very well separated from lesser GM cars. Bonus points for offering the CTS-V. OTOH, why does the Audi A4 only offer a CVT as their automatic option while the Volkswagen CC and GLI offer the DSG automated manual?
  
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- Drifter on Aug 12, 2010
  How many LS 400s does Lexus sell? About 5 times as many A8. The Prius alone outsold VW in certain months. Unlike Lexus, Cadillac and Inifiniti which has dedicated RWD platforms, Audi is can only compete with p!mped up fwd sedans just like Acura but not doing a job of it a far as sales charts are concerned.
  
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- Th009 on Aug 12, 2010
  
  @Drifter, you should get your facts straight. While the A3 is based on the same platform as the Golf and (outgoing) Jetta, and the Q7 shares the platform with the Touareg (and Porsche Cayenne), the rest of the Audi lineup is built on Audi-specific platforms. Longitudinal vs transverse engines should give you a clue ...
  
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Marjanmm on Aug 12, 2010

Is Infiniti sold only in North America? I mean 10K units a month isn't much more than the 100K a year Alfa Romeo has come down to and is consequently unprofitable and close to be killed off. 100K or so a year cannot possibly be enough to maintain a range of world class BMW chasing rear-wheel drive cars so different to standard Nissans and Renaults.

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Rain on Aug 12, 2010

Well, to the uninformed consumer/non-enthusiasts (like 90% of buyers), if you asked them what they thought is a luxury brand, the 1st brands that would come to their mind is BMW/Mercedes and perhaps Lexus. Also I'm surprised how Audi is getting its ass kicked by GM/Acura/Infiniti and even Mercury (LOL), despite all the hype of how awesome their cars look, class-leading interior, sporty yet refined performance, etc etc.

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