Mercedes Leads BMW And Audi In April On Strength Of Entry Level Offerings

What a misleading headline!

The headline should read: Mercedes-Benz has largest PERCENTAGE increase in global sales for April compared to BMW and Audi.

1. Audi brand vehicles: 133,500 up 6.6% (YTD: 503,000 up 6.7%)

2. BMW brand vehicles: 130,598 up 7.5% (YTD: 512,000 up 7.1%)

3. Mercedes brand vehicles: 116,566 up 11.7% (YTD: 441,464 up 5.6%)

The title is misleading. Mercedes does not actually lead Audi or BMW on total sales numbers (April, year to date) or sales growth year-to-date -- or on anything that really matters.

Worldwide sales in April 2013 (and year-to-date):

1. Audi brand vehicles: 133,500 (YTD: 503,000)

2. BMW brand vehicles: 130,598 (YTD: 512,000)

3. Mercedes brand vehicles: 116,566 (YTD: 441,464)

So Mercedes grew 11.7% in April, woohoo. This is a clear case of Mercedes exaggerating with ONE cherry-pick statistic (April sales growth) while omitting to consider other more significant statistics:

- What's more interesting is sales growth for year to date 2013 compared to first four months of 2012: Audi 6.7%, BMW 5.7%, Mercedes 5.6%. Mercedes was the worst in sales growth this year compared to same period last yeae. Given the much higher total sales of Audi and BMW, this indicates that the total sales lead of BMW and Audi over Mercedes has actually widened.

- Mercedes is well behind Audi and BMW for total sales in both April and year-to-date 2013.

- Mercedes sales in April 2013 may have increased 11.7% compared to April 2012, but that was from a much lower base in April 2012 compared to Audi and BMW.

Given the gaps in the first four months, it is unlikely that Mercedes would catch Audi or BMW in total sales in 2013. Whether Mercedes can catch the other two brands in monthly sales in any of the remaining eight months this year remains to be seen.

The German car magazines do not consider the new Mercedes A-Class or BMW 1 series to rival the new Audi A3.

- Autobild (Germany's largest car magazine) comparison test does not consider the Mercedes A-Class (last place) to rival the Audi A3 (first place) or BMW 1 series (second place). Click on the "Zur Bildergalerie" for pictures and more information on the test conclusions.
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/mercedes-a-klasse-bmw-1er-audi-a3-test-3876624.html

- Autozeitung German mega test of 11 compact-class cars: Mercedes A 180 was placed eight. BMW 116i ninth ('he BMW disappointed with ninth - he lacks real strengths"). The top four cars were VW brands: VW Golf, Skoda Octavia, Audi A3 and Seat Leon. All four VW brands were assessed to have better driving dynamics than the Mercedes A Class or BMW 1. (Autozeitung has its own test track)
http://tinyurl.com/bsmey9a

Audi sales
http://tinyurl.com/cj52txs

BMW sales
http://tinyurl.com/cwc7xez

Mercedes sales
http://tinyurl.com/ccmpl9q

The source of this report was Bloomberg, not Mercedes.

Bloomberg quoted what Mercedes told them.

Must be tough for germannut handling 2 accounts

Firewombat, Satrian1 and I share a common belief that Audi needs to receive the appropriate recognition it clearly deserves.

Just because we are both passionate about Audi does not mean we are the same people. If that were the case, there are man pro-BMW fanboys who I would accuse of being the same person, but they aren't.

We have a passion for Audi and want to share our passion with the Autospies community.

Everyone, please go to the latest post from @Germanut, the one about Audi outselling BMW for 2 months this year, and see how he forgot to log out of his @GermanNut account and into his @Satriani account before thanking himself for the title of the article.

2 Accounts. 1 person (deranged Audi fan). Hectic.

Everyone please see how Firewombat is going off-topic and claiming that Satrian1 and I are the same person while not sticking to the Audi vs. BMW debate because he can't tolerate the continuous support Audi receives on Autospies from myself and Satrian1.

This article is about Mercedes benz and their lead over the other brands, not BMW vs Audi. Exactly as I have said before, you try to turn everything into Audi vs BMW, you're the one constantly off topic.

Firewombat: You must have four accounts since you sound like three other Bimmer fanboys -- all lots of hot air, but light on facts, and antagonistic to posters with facts.

Grow up. I post from Toronto, Canada. I doubt GermanNut posts from here. Why don't you ask the agents to verify what I said?

Firewombat, the article is titled "Mercedes Leads BMW and Audi in April..." Audi is clearly mentioned in the title and in the article. My comments are used to inform the community of Audi's sales figures in relation to BMW's and Mercedes-Benz's.

For the last time, this article is incorrectly titled and whether it was done intentionally or unintentionally I don't know. The guys over at Bloomberg are facing a huge crisis of their own at the moment and this article was not one of their best displays of journalism.

MB needs ti fix their ML, C,MLK & B class
those are worst looking cars and trucks

FYI Firewombat: I post from the United States.

Sorry @Gnut, was that China or the United States? Or Both?

That was a terrible joke, Firewombat.

What joke?

Why must you troll other posters carrying personal vendettas from one topic to the next? If you have an issue with them contact the agents, don't clog the site with accusations irrelevant to the topic at hand.