LexFather

TRD, thanks for posting that. Clearly incentives being cut hit the 3 series. 5 series is still selling very well though.

TRDFantasy

Once the coupe and convertible come out, the IS line should be in the top 3 sales-wise.

TRDFantasy

Incentives were not cut across the board though. I think the incentives cut was mainly with the 3 Series. As we know, crazy leases and big incentives led to the sales bump for the 7 last month, and my hypothesis is that the same happened for the 5 Series.

Also I'm still puzzled by the huge sales hit to BMW in January. Incentives were much higher in January.

RON430

Not sure about the 3 or the 5 but the incentives on the 7 now extend through 3/31. It is really tempting and as you can get a 7 for less than an A8 it's not going to help Audi.

doug_999

Here are the BMW facts....
BMW does not have these great deals all the time. But when they do, they are sweet. As Ron pointed out, they are effectively offering 4.9% interest on the 7-series or some money off the car. This is a good deal, but they are not blowing these things out of the water. However, this "good deal" coupled with CR's new recommendation of the 7-series puts prospective buyers (like Ron) in the market for a 7-series and thus we see some nice sales numbers.

BMW has a decent deal on the 328xi sedan and coupe with an effective 4.2% rate on the leases or 3.9% on the purchase. The coupe moves up to 4.9%, and we start increasing from there. So there are decent deals out there, but BMW is not blowing them out of the water.

What is weird is that they report that they pulled BACK on incentives for Feb and my numbers show otherwise (with the exception of the 328i which had slightly better numbers in Jan).

Anyway, smart money is holding back on large purchases while we see what happens with the economy. If you want proof, just look at the LS sales.

Last but not least, my personal opinion is that the new C-Class and CTS are giving BMW some new competition. Couple this with a new M3 coming, a revised 3-series in Sept, and of course the 1-series and I don't expect BMW to pull 12K numbers/month on the 3-series for a while.

Continuing my personal opinion....I sure am seeing a lot of Camry's at the rental places these days. With GM and Ford pulling back on their fleet sales and the Camry holding its resale value well, can you blame them?

LexFather

Whats amazing is the 3 lost 25% of sales and still is number 1. That is insane!

RON430

To tell you the truth, the one that I find amazing is that 5100 of CTS sales. That is impressive. I am sure the General will misread this as acknowledgement that anything they make is desirable when all it is saying is if you make competitive cars, people will buy them. It's taken them way too long to get that message.

Other than that, the drop in Prius sales is the other standout to me. Although looking at our local paper today has a Toyota dealer offering Camry Hybrids for 23,209, two at that price, and Prius for 26,488, 64 at that price. I guess it is possible that while the Camry doesn't get the mileage of the Prius that people are opting for the Camry over the Prius. In months past, the numbers of Prius and Camry Hybrid advertised were very close, something like 50 of each at this dealer. Now the Camry Hybrid seems to be more scarce. Then again, who knows?

And yes, the 750 is awfully tempting.

TRDFantasy

Obviously not all the time, but according to Edmunds BMW had a lot more great deals January compared to February. Yet 3 Series sales for both months were hit hard.

As for the Camry, all I have is this to say: despite what you may be seeing from personal observation, the Camry's fleet sales are still only a fraction compared to domestic sedans. Also Toyota did state that they would keep fleet sales below 10% of total sales here in the US. While Toyota's fleet sales might be increasing from people's personal observation, Toyota by their own words will not allow fleet sales to go any higher than 10% of total sales.

If you want to know who is picking up some of the slack for fleet sales from the American automakers, it's mainly the Koreans. A very significant percentage of Kia and Hyundai sales are fleet.

Hypnotik

Since the coupe versions of the 3 series are bundled up with the sedans, we might as well see where the G is as well

February Luxury Car Sales

Entry
1. 3 series - 8,943 (includes all models coupe/convert/sedan)
2. C - 5,781
3. G - 5,742 (includes coupe and sedan)
4. CTS - 5,118
5. ES - 4,795
6. TL - 4,127
7. IS - 3,906
8. MKZ - 3,531
9. A4 - 2,775
10. TSX - 2,295
11. S60 - 1,310
12. 9-3 - 1,071
13. S40 - 930
14. X-Type - 180

Midsize
1. 5 - 4,442
2. E - 2,547
4. M - 1,581
4. STS - 1,436
5. GS - 1,422
6. S80 - 1,270
7. A6 - 847
8. RL - 408
9. S-Type - 402
10. 9-5 - 223

Flagship
1. LS - 1,891
2. S - 1,533
3. 7 - 1,502
4. A8 - 231
5. XJ - 225[/QUOTE]

Hypnotik

Thats a possibility. I'd like to see the outcome as well

LexFather

post 45, someone already bunched it together.

Hypnotik

nice to know. Thanks

doug_999

Yet, I have the actual lease numbers which disprove this.....

TOTAL sales - the Corolla is well above 10% and I'm betting the Camry is pushing that number as well.

TRDFantasy

I'm just looking at the sales numbers and looking at what Edmunds says. There is definitely more to the story here.

Yes the Corolla has been over 10% for a while, which makes sense since it was the old model and Toyota had lots of them in stock. Now with the new model expect to see that number drop below 10%.

Last year I believe the Camry was at 7-8%. It's probably around the 10% mark right now, which given the Camry's volume is pretty incredible. That would still mean roughly 90% of Camry sales are purely retail.

carguy101

The C is definitely taking sales away from the 3. From what the dealers tell me, people still cross-shop the 3 the most with the C, not the G or the IS.

And I think part of the reason for the C's conquest sales is that for the first time ever, a comparably equipped C-class is cheaper than a comparably equipped 3 series.