Worldwide Sales: Mercedes Falls 28%, BMW Falls 24%, Audi Falls 11%

BMW has finally released it's worldwide sales for February, which means the comparisons between the German three can begin.

So how did things go?

Mercedes handled the recession worse than both Audi and BMW, having it's sales fall by 28% from 88,000 to 63,600. The Smart brand helped cushion Daimler's fall by declining by only 2% from 8,800 in '08 to 8,600. For the month of February, Daimler was down 25% with sales of 72,200 from 96,800 in '09.

BMW did slightly better declining by 24% with '09 February sales of 68,803, compared to 90,449 for the same period in 2008. But unlike Daimler that had the help of Smart, BMW wasn't so lucky as the Mini brand fell 27% to 11,583 from 15,919 in 2009. BMW group's total sales declined by 24% to 80,453 from 106,368.

Audi came out of February with the best results, do in part to it's comparatively small exposure to the falling US market. Their sales for February 2008 were down by only 11% from the 71,000 in 2008 to 63,000 in 2009.


Sales breakdown:

Mercedes: -28% (63,600 from 88,000)
BMW: -24% (68,803 from 90,449)
Audi: -11% (63,000 from 71,000)

Mini: -27% (11,583 from 15,919)
Smart: -2% (8,600 from 8,800)

Daimler: -25% (72,200 from 96,800)
BMW group: -24% (80,453 from 106,368)

BMW4me4ever - 3/10/2009 10:34:50 AM

+1 Boost

Mercedes is in trouble. BMW's figures arent that bad considering the new 7-series hasnt arrived in the US, and just started to arrive in Europe. Audi's is better because their new A4 debuted at the right time. It will definitely be an interesting year

sector - 3/10/2009 10:49:59 AM

+2 Boost

Majority of BMWs are leased, this isn't an accurate representation...

BMW leases are like drug for shallow status conscious people who can't sleep at night until they've accessorized themselves with the latest bling and "want" to look rich even though they're gettin' by with food stamps and Kraft dinner. BMW know this and it's whole marketing philosophy is "engineered" to exploit these poor saps (ol Suzie Quandt has muliple marketing degrees right?) near 0% lease rates, "free" maintenance, stripper base models with "pretend" leather seats, etc., but the badge comes "standard" with every bimmer :)

Like a smart drug dealer, the first one's probably "on the house" but once you're hooked, in no time you've become an addict and are now lining their pockets.

BMW4me4ever - 3/10/2009 12:35:29 PM

+1 Boost

Sector - What is the benefit of buying a car in today's market vs leasing a car in today's market? This is being said with economy in the toilet and cars depreciating faster than what you are able to spend. I lease my BMW's, but I could buy them also. I just choose to lease for write off reasons. Plus, even at 1% financing, I will not be able to pay my car down fast enough to where i am in an equitable position .... get a clue ...

anoopkarkhanis - 3/10/2009 3:25:37 PM

+5 Boost

You are forgetting the E-class. It went from 234,000 to 175,000...for 2008 from 2007...not all attributed to bad quality( as some may put it) .Its in the midst of the model year change. Its only going to fall more. It makes up a huge amount of sales for the month. So BMW actually appears to be doing the worst. Audi is just too strong at the moment and deservedly so. They are just building too good of a product....and this is coming from a die hard Mercedes fan. They have the great cushion from the VW group...which BMW and Mercedes dont have....whcih means less development costs and more profits with equal amount of cars. But noone should take away their shine. They are the best right now. BMW and Mercedes need to reduce their costs and build better products...how? they should figure that out.

GermanNut - 3/10/2009 4:06:54 PM

+3 Boost

Audi global sales through end of February 2009: 120,000

Mercedes-Bez global sales through end of February 2009: 117,500

Audi percentage decline through February 2009: 20%
Mercedes-Benz percentage decline through February 2009: 31%

Unless it's just me, there is a trend here which, if maintained, shows Audi surpassing Mercedes-Benz at the end of 2009.

1evlaudi - 3/11/2009 12:53:19 AM

+2 Boost

GermanNut, where did yo get those figures? Do you have BMW by any chance? thanks