Audi Sales Still Remain Slow - Down 19.4% In March

Audi today announced sales for the month of March totaling 6,433 units sold. Audi’s share of U.S. import luxury vehicle sales increased a strong 1.3 percentage points to 7.77% in March. This increase continues the consistent climb in Audi market share throughout last year and in the first months of 2009.

A bright spot in March was the impressive early demand for the Audi Q5. In its first full month, the Q5 recorded sales of 1,094 units, making the Q5 the highest-selling Audi vehicle in March after the A4.

Sales of the Audi A5 and R8 continued to be strong, with the A5 posting a 41.6% sales increase over 2008 due to 657 units sold in March. The A5 has recorded 1,754 total units sold in 2009, an increase of 47.4% over the same time last year. Sales of the Audi R8 kept pace with their March 2008 sales numbers and are up 18.6% year to date.

“The strong debut of the Q5 shows that consumers are recognizing the distinctive improvements this vehicle brings to the luxury crossover market. With the new success of the Q5 and the continued success of the A5, Audi has maintained its momentum and its share of the luxury car market,” said Johan de Nysschen, President, Audi of America. “While the economic conditions remain challenging, Audi dealers surpassed our projections for the month.”

Audi Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) sales maintained solid numbers. Audi recorded 2,849 CPO units sold in March. 

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GermanNut - 4/1/2009 4:09:56 PM

+6 Boost

Once again we see Audi doing better than rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz both in the United States as well as globally. Audi's lower dependence on the crushed U.S. market when compared to rivals BMW and Merceds-Benz has allowed it to consistently increase its marketshare for the last 6 months.

Audi is already the leader in China, which has become the largest car market by sales for the first two months of 2009 and will likely continue that lead for the rest of 2009 over the struggling United States markets.

The Q5 has already been regarded as the best small luxury-crossover in-class over the BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLK.

On another note, Audi will outsell Mercedes-Benz globally for the first quarter of 2009. Another 3 more quarters of this trend and Audi will become the world's second largest premium luxury manufacturer by volume at the end of this year.

ghosthunter - 4/1/2009 5:45:38 PM

0 Boost

what do you mean by "already". they were in China since the very beginning and China is their biggest market. unfortunitely, they are lossing market shares constantly every since 2004 becaues BMW/Benz/Lexus/Acura/infinit just stepped in chinese market in the past few years.

btw the way, the VW passet use to be the best selling family sedan in China for more than 10 years because there was no other companies to compete with VW. however, once Honda decide to join the competition in 2000, the accord became the best selling family sedans in China until Camry want to have a piece of pie. the poor passet has never seen the light of day after year 2000.

M53R - 4/1/2009 6:19:06 PM

+2 Boost

I agree with you on the fact that Audi is in a better position because they don't depend on the US market, but I fail to see your point when you say its doing better than the rest in the US once again? When you sell a little amount of cars from the 1st place, its obviously going to be hard for you to get a large decrease in sales compared to somebody who sells almost 3 times as you do.

aarononymous - 4/1/2009 6:36:58 PM

+2 Boost

I still don't get this arguement. Maybe you can explain why Audi having a lower sales totals affects the decline going on everywhere

VISO - 4/1/2009 4:18:52 PM

+2 Boost

Let's hope so.

eidos2004 - 4/1/2009 8:34:32 PM

+6 Boost

It makes you wonder what the numbers would have looked like if we had access to their diesel engines for the A4 and Q5. I would suggest that these numbers will increase in a more positive manner once they move some of their production into the US. Hopefully their diesel engines will finally make it to the rest of their lineup.

aarononymous - 4/1/2009 8:59:07 PM

+3 Boost

Q7 TDI is supposedly at the ports to be released anytime now. A3 2.0 TDI should be next near the end of the year.

LexSucks - 4/2/2009 3:53:11 PM

-1 Boost

I couldn't care less if Audi outsold BMW. Which I don’t think that they do? Americans are not the brightest bunch when it comes to cars, but they are at least smart enough to see that Audi in its current form sells overpriced, underperforming cars.

Audi either builds super-expensive performance cars that no one can afford, or expensive, underperforming, harmless sedans like the A4.

The A4 line is Audi’s bread-and-butter car. But for some reason Audi chooses not make the A4 competitive with its rivals. For the last 8 or so years the A4 3.2 has been at the bottom of the heap against its competitors. Even lower than the MB C-350 (if that’s possible). While at the same time the A4 3.2 is close to the TOP of the price charts.

I don’t see any Audi under $50K that I would enjoy. BMW,Lexus and even Infinti all offer cars under $50k that actually perform (and that I would enjoy). Until Audi does the same, they will not get any more of my money. Audi is just like MB, You have to spend super-serious coin to get any performance. I'm glad the rest of the premium brands aren't like that.

1uberaudi - 4/3/2009 1:07:00 AM

+4 Boost

Please educate us on your definition of performance for luxury cars under $50k. You think a Lexus or Infiniti offer a Luxury product with performance. All you have to do is pop the hood of a Lexus to see that they don't have a clue about engineering, so they cover it up with plastic. As far as performance, Lexus offers the most unattractive underperforming cars on the road. It isn't the economy that's killing there sales, it's that the Lexus buyer is moving away from the Japanese psuedo luxury cars and going back to true luxury cars like the A4, with a base engine that offers 211 horses and 258 lb/ft of torque and standard features like LEATHER and a SUNROOF. What "bread and butter" car at Lexus offers this and gets 28MPG in AWD. They don't, because they have boring/antiquated engineering and a cheap fit and finish.. They don't actually offer real luxury and performance at prices below $50k, or $60k, or even anything below $120k.

DieselRules - 4/3/2009 3:06:59 AM

+1 Boost

I thought VW had the lowest drop in sales, but I see Audi did slightly better.
Pretty good.
But I agree that they'd go a LOT better if they offered more diesels ... especially the 3.0 V6 TDI in the new A4 All-road and A6. And the V8 TDI in the A8!

iamdabest1 - 4/3/2009 10:07:57 AM

0 Boost

please dont give me this crap about " Audi would have had better sales numbers if they had diesel."
most people dont care for diesel engines and that is a fact.
if audi wants better sales numbers, all they have to do is offer better lease rates to their customers.
why do you think you see so many benz and bmw's on the road, go to the dealer and you will be shocked at how good their lease rates are.

Audi has awesome cars, with the new led lights, ( love it or hate it) the most distinctive thing on the road right now.
the best awd system in the world !
dont give me this REAR DRIVE IS THE WAY TO GO CRAP !

ill bet the majority of the drivers on this web site would kill themselves if they drove powerful rear drive cars.

i have a 335xi and my cousin has an M5. we raced, guess who won ???
the 335xi, you wana know why ? because if you are not a professional driver, you will fly off the road with rear drive... trust me, i almost killed myself once with my M3.
i would never get audi's base models, but if they had better lease deals on their S line, i would get it over bmw.