[shankar.balan]

Merc's been around here forever. Audi and Bee Em are relatively new.
A comparo between the three, offering for offering, price point to price point over a specific time frame will give everyone a fair idea of 'like to like'sales.
Howver if Audi worldwide are anything to go by, they seem to be quietly and competently gaining a good choke hold on the market place. Personally I somehow prefer the Audis vis a vis the other two so I guess I shall aspire to own one sometime too! No harm dreaming!

[Nitrous Power]

These are US Car sales number for German trio + Lexus but posting here as we do not have USA specific sales thread and did not feel right to open a new thread for just these 4.

Following are US sales data for Merc, BMW, Audi and Lexus:

May 2012 (May 2011):

Mercedes: 24,561 (20,306)
BMW: 22,168 (20,651)
Lexus: 21,463 (12,305)
Audi: 11,503 (10,457)

2012 YTD (YTD 2011):

Mercedes: 113,520 (95,458)
BMW: 104,779 (92,068)
Lexus: 88,110 (77,237)
Audi: 52,494 (45,858)

Again, number proves that Merc is ahead of BMW and Lexus by a small margin but three of these are miles ahead than Audi in mature USA market . Lexus is back on recovery track now and is expected to overtake both Merc and BMW in coming 3 to 4 months. Audi has a long way to go as far as USA market is concerned.

Link:
Auto Sales - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com
Lexus May 2012 Sales Report | Lexus Enthusiast

[PPS]

Interesting read - Forbes India Magazine - Shock and Audi

[volkman10]

International news on Audi Vs BMW!

Audi narrows sales gap with BMW as brand's global deliveries rise 14.9% in August.

Through August, BMW delivered 963,110 vehicles, a rise of 7.8 percent and just 2,110 more than Audi, which sold 961,000, a rise of 12.7 percent. The Mercedes brand sold 841,567 in the same period, a rise of 5.4 percent.



http://www.autonews.com/article/2012...#ixzz264lPYrQM

[PPS]

BMW taking a dig at Audi over discounts!
I always thought BMW was the one offering the best deals/discounts. Last i heard 5 lakh rupee discount on the X1.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/17222678.cms

Philipp von Sahr, the new president of BMW in India, has said the company is confident of maintaining its leadership in the market, but without getting into a price war. "Some of our competitors believe in gaining leadership only through discounts," von Sahr said in an apparent reference to Audi, that has been closing in on its leadership.

[greatmana2000]

I have a small doubt. Is Benz associated with Tata in any way for manufacture or sale of cars in India.?

[deetjohn]

Dr. Andreas Schaaf gave India the X1 and the 3er Corporate Edition and mighty discounts on other models. That, along with other factors propelled BMW to the top.

Looks like Philipp von Sahr is in no mood to hit his profitability. Let's see how it affects the war of the Germans.

The CKD Q7 is a shot in the arm for Audi.

Edit:

Originally Posted by greatmana2000

I have a small doubt. Is Benz associated with Tata in any way for manufacture or sale of cars in India.?

IIRC, Mercedes used Tata's paint shop till about 2010. Don't know whether they have any association now. Force Motors assemble engines for Mercedes.

[S2!!!]

BMW is planning to launch its premium hatchback - the 1-series and locally assemble it in India in 2013. It shall be the cheapest BMW offering and would be placed in direct competition to the A-class. Things are finally heating up in the 'real' premium hatch segment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s6YQ...&feature=g-u-u

[volkman10]

Mercedes loses to BMW globally too!

The number one luxury car maker in the world – BMW – has more good news coming its way.

It seems that the arch rival Mercedes is in a tone of trouble after recent evaluations. According to Bloomberg, the investors value Mercedes-Benz at half what BMW is worth.

This new valuation is quite alarming because throughout the history Mercedes and BMW were pretty much neck-to-neck with each other. In fact, just two years ago, Mercedes had a market capitalization of 15.5 billion euros higher than BMW.

http://indianautosblog.com/2012/12/m...#ixzz2FZpeRf00

[Omtoatom]

That is quite alarming!

Among other things, the following reasons have severely hurt Mercedes; allowing BMW and Audi to widen their gap over them in the luxury segment:

1. BMW have been consistent leaders in innovation
2. Mercedes are lagging heavily in what used to be one of their most dominant markets i.e. China
3. MB has had a rather sluggish foray into popular segments like compact SUVs
4. A brand image and perception that lacks appeal for youngsters

Also for investors, its the profits that count and BMW seems to be doing pretty well on that front. They reported 6.41 billion euros in operating profit for the first nine months of 2012, a full 112 million euros more than their Stuttgart-based competitor.

BMW also continues to expand its portfolio aggressively with the much-touted new factory planned in Brazil to produce models for 2013 like the 4-Series coupe and the electric-powered i3 city car.

Catch the full story here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-1...tors-cars.html

[bharatbs]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

BMW is planning to launch its premium hatchback - the 1-series and locally assemble it in India in 2013. It shall be the cheapest BMW offering and would be placed in direct competition to the A-class.

The BMW 1 series hatchback is pretty popular in parts of China especially Macau. I was wondering why this was not available in India. Glad to hear about BMW India's plans regarding the same.

But personally I think the Mercedes Benz A Class looks bigger and much better both on the interiors and exterior in comparison to BMW 1 series.

[Karan1981]

Originally Posted by bharatbs

The BMW 1 series hatchback is pretty popular in parts of China especially Macau. I was wondering why this was not available in India. Glad to hear about BMW India's plans regarding the same.

But personally I think the Mercedes Benz A Class looks bigger and much better both on the interiors and exterior in comparison to BMW 1 series.

Do you know by when they plan to launch the 1 series which is locally manufactured?

[Jeroen]

Interesting thread;

Here's a little different perspective on BMW:

http://cognitiveanomalies.com/the-**...misunderstood/

In most of Western Europe you don't want to be associated with BMW drivers.
Anything in a 3-series or less is a sales rep on its way to sell the next copier. Anything upwards of a 3 series is likely to be driven by a banker that just bankrupted the nation or a drug dealer.

In the Netherlands Mercedes are strictly driven by:
- taxi drivers
- small business people
- builders / contractors

But in general anybody in Europe that drives a BMW, Audi or a Mercedes is likely to do so at the expense of somebody else. eg. company/lease car.

Whilst living in the US I noticed that no matter what car you drove as long as it was European and not American, people thought it was special. Americans thought/think the Volkswagen Jetta was/is pretty neat for crying out load.

But even there, Mercedes are just for fat old gits. BMW's are bought by fat old gits who pretend to be twenty years younger than they really are. Audi's are bought by fat old gits who are extremely boring.

No offense, but I think none of these cars are ever bought by true car lovers. All of them, no exception, are first and foremost show off cars. Like; I'm the CEO of the company I'm expected to drive a Mercedes/BMW.

Or they are convenient in terms of comfortable, functionality (e.g. the whole family can fit in), or the company lease budget allows for it.

True car lovers never buy a car to show off, and they certainly never buy for convenience.

The last thing a true car lover would be interested in is whether a particular brand sells more units than a other brand.

Jeroen

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Whilst living in the US I noticed that no matter what car you drove as long as it was European and not American, people thought it was special. Americans thought/think the Volkswagen Jetta was/is pretty neat for crying out load.

For all the special European driving pleasures Volkswagens offer. Which Volkswagen has a rear wheel drive layout?

Originally Posted by Jeroen

No offense, but I think none of these cars are ever bought by true car lovers. All of them, no exception, are first and foremost show off cars. Like; I'm the CEO of the company I'm expected to drive a Mercedes/BMW.

M3/M5's are not bought by true car lovers?

[azeemhafiz]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

No offense, but I think none of these cars are ever bought by true car lovers. All of them, no exception, are first and foremost show off cars. Like; I'm the CEO of the company I'm expected to drive a Mercedes/BMW.

The last thing a true car lover would be interested in is whether a particular brand sells more units than a other brand.

Jeroen

That's an interesting take. I have driven the AMGs, the Ms and the RSs while abroad and in India and i remember them to be fantastic drivers machine owned and maintained by what I believe to be true car lovers. May be the definition of car lovers are different in your case, but I am willing to bet that there are other members out here who'd believe that the M, AMG and RS are true drivers machine desired by a lot of 'True' car lovers. Please don't take this personally, but may be you could elaborate some other examples of practical 4 door cars that are desirable for 'True' car lovers by your definition.

Getting back to the topic - Judging by the recent surge, most statisticians would predict Audi to take helms at the top of the table soon.

Best,

Azeem