Looking at Luxury Brands Selling Prices

There is always a lot of talk about which luxury brand is the best, which luxury brand sells the most, and which brands even deserve to be called luxury altogether. To clear up some of these questions let's take a look at the average selling prices of the biggest eleven brands that claim to sell luxury cars in the United States. While the manufacturers do not release their average transaction prices in the way that they do with overall sales figures here is our best attempt to see who gets the most for their cars on average. At the top is Mercedes-Benz with an average asking price of around 55,000 per vehicle. Mercedes has by far the most models available for sale in the 75,000+ range. Second is BMW which is able to average a little over 50,000 per every vehicle sold. BMW falls behind Mercedes by offering fewer models over 100,000. Up third is Cadillac that benefits greatly by moving a significant amount of its pricey Escalades every month. Following Cadillac is Audi that sells its models for comparable prices as Mercedes and BMW but moves fewer A6 models compared to the competition. Up next is Infiniti that charges around 45,000 on average followed closely by Lexus that loses ground because of a significant amount of ES sales. Lincoln is able to average a little over 40,000 thanks to Town Car and Navigator sales. Right around the 40,000 dollar cutoff Acura suffers by not having a true flagship sedan or having a coupe or convertible version of the TSX. Opening up the premium category Volvo lacks serious firepower without a V8 in its lineup. Second to last Buick is a great example of selling vehicles at a premium but not luxury prices. Bringing up the rear is Chrysler with a majority of its sales comprised by the 200 and the Town&Country minivan.

*The data represented below is an attempt to find out the average selling prices of the luxury brands based on their product mix. The figures are averaged based on sales, thus a brand selling more flagship sedans versus entry level models has a higher average price than a brand selling mostly entry level models. Because of lack of sales figures BMW's M lineup and Mercedes's AMG models were not factored in, thus those brands likely have slightly higher transaction prices than indicated here.

Chart Here:
http://killwithfire.blogspot.com/201...ng-prices.html

 

there is real info out there on average transaction prices, no guessing needed.... just need to find it or sub to some expensive industry report

 

Thanks for sharing. This is a very nice analysis.

It shows that Lexus is perilously close to the premium segment (Lincoln, Acura, Volvo, etc.). The reason is the ES350, which really is a premium segment car, accounting for such a high share of Lexus volume. This I think indicates that the Lexus brand is not healthy and reinforces one of the key concerns raised by one of the Lexus Dealers Associations earlier this year.



I suspect many on this forum won't like these facts and will try to deny your analysis.

Also regarding your methodology, I think if you had the actual data, BMW would do better because they have a more stripped base car, and sell more options than other OEMs. The 5 series I have on order has $20k in options - a 33% increase over the base price.

I suspect the gap to Mercedes and Audi will increase using this approach, because Lexus and Infiniti have more standard equipment.

That said you should deduct the value of a 4 year maintenance plan from BMWs and Jaguars ASPs.

 

^^

They are still guesses. BMW and Mercedes have a lot of incentive leases, which make the cars actually cheaper to get into than comparable Lexus models but still maintains ATP and resale value. These guys are pouring on the incentives like crazy, while Lexus has virtually no incentives going. One thing this chart fails to take into account.

 

I understand that, but I believe the delta in option upsell will offset the delta in promotions. In other words the ASP gap to Mercedes and BMW is even bigger on new cars.

I also believe that these cars are overpriced in terms of MSRP which is why they depreciate so much faster. Nonetheless it is interesting that BMW outsells Lexus in the US with a higher ASP.

 

At over 9100 units the majority of BMW's sales by far is from the 3 series, again I'm betting they're giving these things away with very attractive lease offers. The 3er doubled the C class in sales, and it's close to end of cycle. A little too impressive if you ask me. It would probably cost a lot more to get into an IS than a 3 series despite the 3 series having a higher MSRP (which this chart uses to calculate ATP).

Unless the numbers are directly from the manufacturers it is very difficult to make any kind of estimates because there are just too many factors.

Edit: here are some of the lease deals BMW, Mercedes and Audi are offering:

BMW

328i
$339/month, well-equipped for 27 months

335i
$409/month, well-equipped for 27 months

Mercedes

C300
$349/month for 33 months

C350
$459/month for 33 months

Audi

A4 2.0T Premium
$429/mo Lease for 39 months

The 3 series is the cheapest and with the shortest commitment. Meanwhile there are no lease deals on the IS, and getting into one will probably cost $500+/month.

 

Yeah but BMW's definition of well equipped is a joke! A Base KIA is better equipped than what they are calling well-equipped in that promo.

 

This is part of what my LFA rant was about. This is not a source for info, its some kid that magically decided to put together a chart for a single month. You would need to go over the data for months/years to come with trends to compute the proper data.

Not to mention all this person did was literally take the MSRP of the cars, then divide it by cars sold. That is not accurate at all!

As some people here mentioned, Lexus is lowest with incentives, the Germans have huge incentives as Infiniti. THat is not measured here.

Its a moving number. Back in 2006/2007 Lexus was selling droves of 50k plus cars so the figure would be different.

Sorry but this data is really useless unless you say "this is avg ASKING price" not TRANSACTION PRICE.

 

Are there stats on the percentage of leases compared to purchases between the different brands? Seems like most people lease German cars. These lease deals really skew the true price of a vehicle.

 

1. Do we really need to bump 3-month-old threads?
2. Data is meaningless if there is no explanation of how it is derived.
3. This has already been discussed in this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...shi-inaba.html

Personally I think threads and posts presenting anything like this where the data is just totally suspect and unverifiable should be under serious consideration for a lock, because even if it's not intentional flame-baiting, arguing over unexplained and thus unverifiable data is just silly.

 

Agreed........