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Jack
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG ’s BMW brand in August widened its sales lead over Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp’s Lexus, delivering the most luxury models in the U.S. for a fifth straight month.
BMW’s U.S. Sales Rise, Outselling Mercedes-Benz
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)’s BMW brand in August expandened its sales lead over Daimler AG (DAI)’s Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)’s Lexus, delivering the most luxury models in the U.S. for a fifth straight month.BMW’s U.S. sales, helped by deliveries of the new 5-Series sedan and X3 sport-utility vehicle, rose 6.5 percent last month compared with a year earlier to 20,815, the Munich-based automaker said yesterday in a statement. The results bring BMW a step closer to being 2011’s top-selling U.S. luxury brand and ending Lexus’s 11-year streak.
Mercedes sales fell 1.9 percent to 18,477 in August while Lexus fell 7 percent to 18,103 as the Japanese make continued to suffer from inventory disruptions following the March earthquake and tsunami.
“This has been a very strange August for our industry with both difficult news and unfortunate events -- consumer confidence down and an earthquake, hurricane and floods in the Northeast” Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW of North America, said in a statement.
BMW expanded its sales lead for the year with a 12 percent increase through August to 155,929. Deliveries of Stuttgart, Germany-based Mercedes vehicles rose 6.1 percent to 148,409 in the U.S. while Lexus’s fell 17 percent to 120,652. Toyota is based in Toyota City, Japan.
The results exclude Daimler’s Sprinter vans and Smart cars and BMW’s Mini brand, which aren’t luxury vehicles.
