In 24 hours, the 2011 sales race between BMW and Mercedes will declare a winner, but the outcome is far from being predictable. Through November, Mercedes-Benz seemed to have a safe lead, but according to the sales statistics for Mercedes-Benz, the year-to-date numbers included nearly 15,000 Sprinter vans. Without these vehicles, that don’t count towards luxury car sales, BMW had a slight lead: 221,073 vs. 219,491, or 1,582 units more for BMW.
It is worth pointing out that these numbers do not include the Smart or Maybach brands, or BMW’s MINI and Rolls Royce brands.
In November, Mercedes-Benz topped BMW by more than 5,000 vehicle sales in the U.S., the second month in a row that Stuttgart-based automaker took the win for the most luxury sales. Year-to-date, bot companies’ sales rose 12 percent.
As an interesting tidbit, the top selling models from Mercedes were the facelifted C-Class and E-Class models. Sales rose 47 percent to 26,796 in November. C-Class sales in November more than doubled to 8,358 from 3,930, while the 3 Series sales account for 7,568 units.
So who will get the bragging rights? Stay tuned for a new analysis on the global car luxury sales for 2011.
