Mercedes Jumps Out To A Big Sales Lead Over BMW - Audi Closes In On Lexus

Wow...Lexus had a horrible month. I wonder what the cause was...did they not have adequate SUV inventory or did they try to dial back the lease incentives?

Lexus typically does sweetheart leases in December to improve their calendar year sales figure. January is typically a dud month for car sales anyway, so they turn 'em and burn 'em in December and then tone it down in January.

Yeah but shouldn't it be a dud every year? not a decline from last year?

BTW: Merc outsold BMW by almost 10,000 vehicles
Audi was about 2300 shy of Lexus

I suppose it depends on how aggressive Lexus wanted YTD sales for CY2016 at the expense of January sales. My guess is that Lexus "over sold" in December and then dramatically dialed back incentives in January.

I do know that there was a stunning amount of cash on the hood across the board among all brands and what I find troubling is that with all that "incentivization" that sales were flat or even declined in some cases.

Lexus sure had a surprise bad January, but I won't count Audi as a thread yet.

Reasons I think why Lexus did poor in January:

L/Certified had their best January ever, that took a lot out of new sales and I'm sure the dealers have even a bigger margin on their certified than new.

Lexus December 2016 was too high and pulled some out of January.

Looking ahead, it will be a battle for #2 between Lexus and BMW. MB is just too far already and they don't even have to win much monthly races to stay ahead.

Looks like Mercedes is Dominating the sales with this current generation, and Audi is doing well albeit at a lower sales volume (continuing to grow despite the high volume small SUVs being at the end of life cycle and the A6/7 being close to end of life cycle). It seems to me that Lexus and BMW are at this point maintaining sales with incentives, and see huge drops when they dial back a little.

Do you assume that Mercedes and Audi aren't also "incentivizing" their sales? The sticker price for many premium cars is significantly higher than the actual transaction amount. They all incentivize.

They are but not like BMW and Lexus...especially with heavily subsidized leases. For example 2 months ago on could lease a 528i x drive for under $500 a month with nothing down...You can't lease a E class/A6 for that. I wouldn't count Lexus out though especially as CUVS become more and more popular. Once they release their subcompact SUV and 3 row model both will be at the top of the sales class in not too much time (look at how they went from 0 to close to top of the segment with NX within a few months, and top in annual sales the second year of the model).

Especially with the $300 leases here in FL, Lexus will continue to be on top with the NX/CUVs.

Maybe not an E Class, but if you ask really nicely at Audi...

If Lexus truly wanted to turbocharge sales, they would replace the truly horrible GX with a unibody crossover above the RX. The GX is a Toyota designed for the Third World that they've tarted up to make believe it's a luxury vehicle. The handling of the GX in evasive moves is truly scary.

Then there is the as terrible LX which is a tarted-up Land Cruiser and what's underneath it is pretty much a J60 Land Cruiser of 1980. Yes they've done nips and tucks, but like the Expedition which still has a lot of structure of the first Expedition, the LX is AGED.

I'd kill the Sequoia and have it re-emerge as a Lexus to battle the Escalade.

BMW has lost so much ground to Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. market since the start of 2016. BMW went from being the U.S. sales leader in 2015 to falling to third place in 2016 behind both Mercedes-Benz and Lexus.

Now, Mercedes-Benz has opened a massive nearly 10,000 unit lead over BMW for January 2017. Audi's consecutive monthly U.S. sales record has stretched to 73 months. The brand was up 4% in 2016 as a whole while BMW's sales collapsed falling 9.5% for the year. Audi continues to gain marketshare at a rapid clip in 2017 with an 11% gain compared to BMW's essentially flat performance.

BMW is clearly facing a huge sales problem in the U.S. market. Unless BMW changes its design/product strategy for its new models, it should expect to continue to be outsold by Mercedes-Benz and continue to see Audi surge. Customers clearly are not interested in buying BMW's current offerings and are increasingly going to Mercedes-Benz and a surging Audi.

Lexus is coming out with 3 row crossover to slot in above the RX (may be a submodel of RX). They do well with the GX, which is not a huge investment to produce as it is a rebadged LC Prado from overseas. Your analysis of the LX is way off as it is a no compromise SUV and not meant to sell in huge volumes. You call it a "tarted up LC"...being based on the most reliable and dependable vehlcle in production is not a bad thing.

@ malba2367, agreed with your assessment on GX and LX. Not many body on frame luxury SUV left so both of them shines. I see Lexus will probably update GX engine to something more efficient in 2018 redesign. That 4.6 V8 300h is so ancient.

There will be RXLh and RXL, which is the extension of RX and RXh in 2018. It's not a step up, but price will be higher since it will offer 3rd row. 5-seat RX will still be on sale. Just more options on RX line.