If you’re the type to read newspaper, or even news websites, you might be under the impression that our economy is in the dumper. But that just means you’re not looking at the big picture, or at least the 2011 Mercedes-Benz sales reports. As it happens, luxury cars are more in demand than ever.
Mercedes-Benz has announced that they have sold more cars in the first half of this year than the entire last year. Between the months of January and June, Mercedes-Benz has sold 610,531 cars. At his pace, they should be able to hit their year sales record of 1.3 million vehicles.
So this must mean that Mercedes-Benz is taking market share from competitors like BMW and Audi, correct? Nope. BMW is actually stealing market share from Mercedes, and Audi is on the rise as well. Even high-end Volkswagens are selling like preverbal hotcakes.
Maybe you’re thinking that the foreign markets are making up for a weak United States market. Well, that wouldn’t really be true either. While Mercedes numbers do show their biggest gains to be in developing countries like China, the United States also significantly increased their luxury auto purchases.
Don’t get me wrong, China did increase purchases of a Mercedes by 52% this past few months, which is pretty amazing. It’s good time to be Chinese I guess. At least if you’re in the top 1% of the Chinese that can have anywhere near the funds to purchase something like this. Something tells me that the nice people assembling my iPhone 5 at Foxconn are not pulling up to work in their new S-Class.
All this talk of a new German vehicle has me thinking about getting a new car. I’m thinking a Mercedes M class, but I do think the BMW Gran Turismo looks very interesting. Do you have any plans to purchase a new Mercedes, BMW or Audi in the next year?
