The battle for the title of the best-selling premium manufacturer is closer than ever. It has been a heated race the entire year but now the gap between BMW and Mercedes-Benz is getting ridiculously close. BMW announced its sales results for the past month just yesterday and it shows a 6 percent gain compared to the same month of 2018, a notable and good result considering the strong headwinds the industry is facing.
However, other carmakers are not sitting idle either. Mercedes-Benz also posted an increase in sales last month, adding up to 27,433 units sold in September, a slight bump of 4.8 percent. The biggest sellers for the Daimler-owned company were, as expected, SUVs. The GLE SUVs (including the Coupe model) went up by 28 percent, while the BMW X3 and X4 rivals from the GLC range went up by 13 percent.
BMW, on the other hand, sold 27,467 cars last month, which means there were just 34 cars between the two German luxury car makers in September. For the Bavarians, the BMW 3 Series accounted for a big increase in sales, of 19 percent compared to last year.
However, it was the BMW X5 that shined the most, with sales doubling compared to the results recorded in 2018. Understandably so as the X5 was being replaced back then.
On a year-to-date basis, BMW is leading right now by 8,200 vehicles compared to the sales recorded by Mercedes-Benz in the US so far. Peculiarly enough, Lexus, which outsold both BMW and Mercedes in August, somehow took a dive in September, sales declining by a huge 17 percent.
As for Audi, the four-ringed brand is still struggling in the US. Over the course of last month, sales of its best-selling SUV, the Audi Q5, dropped by 41 percent.
