TTAC Reverse Bump: Record Audi Q3 Sales In May After Our April Critique

TTAC is the American car buyer’s influencer of choice. We render verdicts, and the masses abide by our verdicts. Why do Americans buy more than 400,000 Toyota Camrys per year? Because TTAC’s Jack Baruth track-tested a Camry and was more than a little complimentary. That’s why.

Want more evidence of TTAC’s overwhelming authority? On April 11, this article on the subject of the Audi Q3 written by yours truly accused the Q3’s ride comfort of being nonexistent. I said the Q3 is the Audi that makes sure, against all reason, that I possess no pro-Audi bias.

You already know the results of such an article. In response to the critique, Americans would quickly turn away from the Q3, and inventory at Audi dealers would surely build up as customers cancelled their orders.

Or, the Audi Q3 would break its own U.S. sales record in April and then break that record again in May.

To be fair, even in its best U.S. sales month ever, the Audi Q3 was the least popular crossover in its category. While year-over-year Q3 sales jumped 52 percent to 1,719 units, the Mercedes-Benz GLA’s 13-percent decline still translated to 366 more sales than Audi managed. (Not that TTAC is in the business of heartily recommending the GLA.)

BMW X1 sales nearly doubled to 2,210 units. Year-to-date, the Q3 trails both of its German rivals by large margins.

In all seriousness, we can’t say this wasn’t as easy to foretell as a Russian track and field star’s failed drug test. Despite all the criticism levelled against the Q3, I wrote two months ago that the smallest Audi crossover lands “smack in the middle of the current auto market’s desirability intersection” because of its premium badge, affordable base price, on-road competence, eye-catching design, elevated ride height, and all-wheel drive.

The Audi Q3 may not exactly be what most small luxury SUV/crossover buyers want, but it’s representative of a trend that won’t die anytime soon. The Q3/X1/GLA trio’s sales are up 38 percent so far this year and jumped 29 percent in May 2016, specifically. In May, a month in which U.S. auto sales volume fell 6 percent and U.S. utility vehicle sales grew just 2 percent (blame an abbreviated auto sales calendar), U.S. sales of the small luxury SUV/crossover category jumped 18 percent.

Seventeen small, premium-brand crossovers generated 35,959 sales in May 2016. Thanks to TTAC, the Audi Q3 produced 4.8 percent of those sales, up from 3.7 percent one year ago.

[Image Source: © 2016 Timothy Cain/The Truth About Cars]

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.