LEXUS LOSING GROUND TO BMW, MERCEDES-BENZ, VOLVO

Lexus is poised to lose its 10-year-long United States market leadership of the premium segment at the end of 2011. And it won’t be domestic classics Buick, Lincoln or Cadillac taking its place, but BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Last month alone BMW sold 71 417 cars in the US, followed within a mouse’s breath by Mercedes-Benz with 71 388 deliveries. By contrast Lexus was only able to shift 64 932 cars in the US.

Over to the rest of the world, things don’t look too promising for Lexus either. In 2010 it only sold 410 000 cars worldwide compared to BMW and Merc’s 1.22 million and 1.17 million odd respectively, while Audi cracked sales of 1.09 million. Even Volvo almost caught the Toyota premium brand as it pushed 373 525 cars.