Sales of premium midsized cars in Europe continue their steady decline, down another 6% after sales already were down 7% over the full year 2013. No change at the top, the BMW 3-series is still “king of the hill”, not only outselling every premium midsized competitor, but plainly outselling every midsized competitor, including the mainstream midsized models. And the 3-series even manages to increase its sales, albeit marginally, despite the fact that the coupe and convertible models are no longer counted within its nameplate. The BMW 4-series are now counted separately as the 4-series and add an extra 10.000 units to BMW’s midsized tally which used to be counted as 3-series sales.
Bear in mind that Mercedes-Benz C-class sales include the coupe and convertible as well and that Audi A5 sales are made up of the coupe, convertible and sportsback versions combined. That makes BMW’s performance even more impressive, considering the 4-series is already breathing down the neck of the A5, while the 4-series Gran Coupe four-door is not yet on sale.
The new generation C-Class has surpassed the Audi A4 to jump into second place of the segment and will undoubtedly increase its lead over its Ingolstadt competitor by the end of 2014.
The biggest relative increase of the top 6 is shown by the Volvo S60/V60, thanks to the ongoing success of the V60 Plug-in Hybrid version, as the station wagon V60 takes more than three quarters of the combined sales.
Further down the ranking, the Lexus IS continues its impressive run since the model changeover, the aggressive design doesn’t seem to hurt the model’s sales at all, which should be good news for the Infiniti Q50, still far behind, but also showing an impressive increase thanks to its new, more aggressive design and an optional Mercedes-Benz diesel engine with excellent fuel economy.
| 2014-Q1 | 2013-Q1 | Change | ||
| 1. | BMW 3-series | 47.834 | 46.983 | 2% |
| 2. | Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 32.230 | 31.006 | 4% |
| 3. | Audi A4/S4/RS4 | 31.460 | 34.532 | -9% |
| 4. | Volvo S60/V60 | 13.943 | 12.119 | 15% |
| 5. | Audi A5/S5/RS5 | 12.558 | 13.611 | -8% |
| 6. | BMW 4-series | 10.087 | 0 | |
| 7. | Volkswagen CC | 3.753 | 5.081 | -26% |
| 8. | Lexus IS | 2.929 | 205 | 1329% |
| 9. | Infiniti Q50/G | 440 | 17 | |
| Segment total | 585.842 | 624.975 | -6% | |
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