January 2013 Sales Thread
02-20-13, 12:15 PM
#62
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It turns out that Mercedes-Benz North America has legitimate claim to being the top selling luxury nameplate in the US in 2012.
While sources such as Autodata had put BMW in the top spot, registration data from R.L. Polk shows that Mercedes customers registering new vehicles topped the Bavarian automaker in the most recent calendar year. Polk says Benz posted 274,123 registrations, compared with BMW's 268,498.
In terms of sales posted, BMW had bested Benz 281,460 to 274,134. But sales are recorded somewhat inconsistently from automaker to automaker. Some book the sales as soon as they are shipped from factory to dealer. There is perennial gamesmanship between the 2 German rivals, and the sales numbers suggest that BMW pushed out some extra sheetmetal to dealers in the last 4 weeks of the year.
Polk officials have not released their numbers to the public, but Autoblog obtained them from Mercedes-Benz.
Speaking at the monthly meeting of the International Motor Press Association in New York City, Mercedes-Benz North America chief Steve Cannon said, "Cars sold to people in the calendar year who then register their vehicles seems to be a more accurate measure of real sales than just the raw sales numbers."
Cannon claims that BMW used "various methods" to beef up its sales in December, as Mercedes had been watching month-to-month registrations all year, and had been leading BMW for 11 months. Cannon said, "When you look at the difference between our sales and registrations, there is a discrepancy of 11. When you look at BMW's, there is a discrepancy of 13,000."
A BMW spokesman said the company stands by its sales figures.
02-20-13, 12:17 PM
#63
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couple of ways to interpret that. 
in this sense you're right - europe in general is cutting back spending while the u.s. govt continues to spend like an skilled identity thief on crack. 
as you know, cars are FAR cheaper in the u.s. than in europe which, combined with europes troubles, is why u.s. car sales are still doing well relatively. but the piper is going to need to be paid back eventually...
in this sense you're right - europe in general is cutting back spending while the u.s. govt continues to spend like an skilled identity thief on crack. as you know, cars are FAR cheaper in the u.s. than in europe which, combined with europes troubles, is why u.s. car sales are still doing well relatively. but the piper is going to need to be paid back eventually...
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