Audi Threatens BMW’s Seven-Year Lead in Luxury Car Sales

BMW has been making huge growth strides lately but so has Audi. BMW and Audi are an even fight, but when VW can dump 25 billion into Audi for R&D the tables get turned quickly.

Audi AG (NSU) trimmed Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)'s lead in 2012 luxury-car sales to just 2,110 vehicles in August, threatening BMW's seven-year hold on the top position in premium auto deliveries.

VW is reaping the benefits from pouring 20 billion euros ($25.6 billion) into research and development at Audi since 2002. The luxury brand now sells 12 model lines, twice what it had in 2003, including three sport-utility vehicles, the A1 compact and the R8 sports car. Audi, which ranks second in premium-vehicle deliveries since overtaking Daimler AG (DAI)'s Mercedes-Benz in 2011, has a goal of beating BMW by 2020.

Audi is likely to overtake BMW several years ahead of that target unless "there are surprising shifts in market share which I don't expect, especially in China," said Daniel Schwarz, a Frankfurt-based Commerzbank analyst. "They are the strongest growing luxury brand, and they just launched the A3, which is close to being their best-selling car in a peak year."

Read the full article - http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...to-2-110-autos

If BMW is no longer the luxury car sales leader will your next car still be a BMW?

Yes. When everyone else is buying, you can bet that I'll be selling.

Originally Posted by tim330i

If BMW is no longer the luxury car sales leader will your next car still be a BMW?

Market position has never had any influence on our car buying decisions.



Will our next car be a BMW? I'm not sure. We might get an i3 if the price is within reason and it is a decent car.

Whether I buy an Audi or a BMW or something else will all depend on which car best meets my criteria at the time. I consider both brands as equal competition, and prefer German cars over American or Asian.

The way I look at it is: Go Audi! The stronger Audi is, the more competitive BMW will have to get, and I can only see that benefiting enthusiasts/consumers.