BMW leads Mercedes, Lexus in U.S. luxury-sales race in May

from the article:

"In May, Mercedes raised discounts by 27% while BMW’s incentives rose by 6.7%."

And that's on top of something not mentioned in the article, tthe fact that Mercedes incentives were already roughly 50% higher than BMW's. Now they're increasing them another 27% -- talk about trying to buy marketshare. It's sad, I've never seen Benz lower themselves like this.

I think BMW will overtake merc by the end of this year. The X3 is on fire... Didn't expect it to sell this well.

aboodesta : Might be , cause 5 series is not as good as we though, To increase the numbers of the 5 series they use the 5GT numbers (not much of course) but definitely not as good as is should and that goes for the 7 series too. MB numbers wont stay like that as soon as they put the reimaged C class on sale. Let see at the end of the year, Also we have to consider that 20,000 MB does not have the same value as 20,000 of BMWs.

"To increase the numbers of the 5 series they use the 5GT numbers (not much of course) but definitely not as good as is should"

So what? Benz is counting E coupes and convertibles in their E-class total. Those used to be called "CLK's", and they're adding a lot more units to the E-class total than 5GT's are adding to the 5-Series. Not to mention Benz has been subventing the leases on the E-class for over a year to absolutely ridiculous payment levels. Sedan to sedan the 5-Series and E-class are neck and neck, which is pretty incredible considering how much more expensive the 5-Series is to lease than the E (and the majority of both are leased new).

"and that goes for the 7 series too"

How does that go for the 7-Series too? There aren't any other models getting lumped into the 7-Series total, and YTD it's ahead of the S-class in sales.

it's three years old. Came out in mid 2008 as a 2009 model, and the 2012's are about to come out. Still newer than the S-class, sure, but it's hardly the new kid on the block the Jaguar XJ and Audi A8 are.