Tier 2 Luxury Brands Outgunned By Lexus And The Germans - Is Lack Of Model Diversity To Blame?

Oh, so Cadillac is tier 2? LOL! The f*****y on this site never ends!
Acure - yes. Lincoln - yes. Not Cadillac.

I enjoy it when people censor words that literally don't exist in anybodys vocabulary but their own.

- wcbrown, I agree with you for the most part but if Cadillac were to move up a tier, I'd say Mercedes should find themselves in a league of their own. Mercedes offers more high end luxury models than any other make, S Class Sedan, S Class Pullman, S Coupe, SL, AMG-GT, G, GL, AMG Trim, Black Series Trim, and now Maybach Trim

Their upscale offerings alone could be a brand

Rolls Royce, Bentley

Mercedes-Benz

BMW, Lexus, Audi, Cadillac, Jaguar

Infiniti, Acura, Volvo, Buick, Lincoln

Generally, I agree that Mercedes, BMW and Lexus own the luxury market in North America (and possibly other regions). But in my mind, I picture Audi as also being in a similar league, although arguably not having the reputation and mind-share of the other three. I believe Audi's sales numbers place them in the same arena.

Am I that far off the mark with Audi? And how about Porsche? Do they lean too much to sport to be considered a top tier luxury brand, or are there other reasons?

AutoSpies: I recommend reading the article in the link. They quantify who's in the luxury lead purely by market share, which translates into unit sales. Porsche, though luxurious and very desirable, owns a tiny share of the luxury market, therefore they're a second tier luxury brand. I don't agree with that, but there you have it.

Lincoln is obvious. Everyone knows it's the new Mercury. Cadillac is an alphabet soup nightmare that is bing revised into another alphabet soup nightmare.

Cadillac needs NAMES

Cadlillac's 3 series competitor should be the CTS and priced accordingly.

The ATS need a named and a $10K price reduction.

The Mercedes E competitor should be the CT6 with a NAME

The Mercedes S competitor should be a Sedan Deville that is larger than th Mercedes for less money.

Flavor that with crossovers and FWD "blue hair" Caddies and you have a winning formula.

Darringer, I'm curious. Where do you see the XTS fitting in? It's a FWD larger sedan at a fairly reasonable price. Yet its sales aren't anything that special.

I'll just add that I personally think the XTS would be a perfect foil for the Lexus ES, if Cadillac decreased it's price to be competitive. Do you agree?

@ W208 - I love it when unbiased articles and comments are posted to this site.

@bliz - You truly are not well-informed automotive brands, product, their competitors and data.

@Car4Life - I do 'mostly' agree with you. MB's ultra-luxe models could compete with the Rolls and Bentleys of the world. Your tier breakdowns are IMO are on point as well.

The others either don't have the models, name or reputation.

Cadillac doesn't have the models to compete or the reputation and that about their rep is a downright SHAME considering their total history. They built outright JUNK for the last 35 years and it will haunt them for who knows how long and they don't have the right models to compete. To compound that, they're overpriced in most cases. Sure they've made great handling sedans, but is that what actual buyers wanted in Cadillacs? NO. The magazines made them believe them that dumb shite. That said Cadillac has the most potential to gain parity with the Germans and Lexus if GM spends the money and is patient.

Acura, Lincoln and Infiniti just don't have the cars or the name or anything to compete with Mercedes, BMW and Lexus. Their all either irrelevant, or confused.

Acuras are nothing but repackaged Hondas and that is a joke. Their only real car, the NSX can't be/save/fix the brand. Period. Luxury cars for those who don't know what real luxury is. Tell me did they ever add a seat cushion adjustment to the front passenger seat?

What is Infiniti? While not being just repackaged Nissans, they're confused. The Q50 threw away all the sporting cred the G35/37 had. The Q70 started out of a sports sedan too, now it is being sold as a long wheelbase model and it rides and drives like crap. Infinit is confused. It used to be be a viable BMW alternative, now what is it?

Lincoln? YAWN. Nothing but American Acura. Repackaged Fords. Nice cars for people who don't know what true luxury is.


People (including me) rag on Lexus, but they're serving up both sport and luxury with a smart product mix and racking up the sales big time. Plus their reliability, which still means a lot.

Mercedes is Mercedes. Enough said. Seen a S600 Maybach or S65 Coupe or GL550 or C450 or G63 or C63 or E63? The only fly in the ointment is the CLA/GLA which don't live up to the name or reputation at all.
GLC, GLE, GLS, GLE Coupe, S550 hybrid, C450, C350e, S600 Maybach all coming in the next 6 months. The Germans practice blitzkrieg when it comes to product introductions.

Audi is the new darling of the market. Serious sales now in the U.S. and the media loves them.

BMW, a gaggle of new models and once they get their driving focus back with the next generation of products....look out.

MB, BMW, Audi and Lexus will continue to dominate IMO. Only Cadillac will get close to them. You can forget Inifniti, Lincoln and Acura. They simply don't have the models, reputation and the deep pockets required to turn them into full service luxury brands. NO coupes, convertibles or nothing exciting at Lincoln, all sedans and SUVs. YAWN. Ditto for Acura, NSX can't save the brand. Infiniti's one bright spot will be the new Q60 Coupe.

People (including me) rag on Lexus, but they're serving up both sport and luxury with a smart product mix and racking up the sales big time. Plus their reliability, which still means a lot.

Audi is a global force, not one in NA, sorry to say. At least not yet. Their overall sales numbers look impressive last year, however, removing the A3 and Q3 from the equation, they were basically flat, year to year.

As for this year, if you took out the A3 and Q3 sales, Audi's higher-level models are trending 20% behind last year. Obviously, sales are sales, but I'm not sure this is the trend Audi, as a luxury maker, wants.

By comparison if you removed the CLA and GLA from the equation, Benz would only be 3% behind for this year and would have been flat last year. So, they are relying less on the lower-end of the scale to support their numbers which is a bit different than what Audi is experiencing.

This is true. Mercedes sells a shite load of E and S cars to make their numbers work. Now the E is easing as the pricier C takes some of its sales. Mercedes ATP is like 58-59K now. More than Audi or BMW, and way more than Lexus. Coming in 2nd last year is ok in the U.S. when you sell that many high end cars IMO. NO shame in that. BMW whored itself out at the last minute to get the title.