Top 15 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In Canada – May 2013

In May, Mercedes-Benz Canada Says, “The diesel
take rate for luxury light trucks was 73.9%.”

With its 183-unit victory in May 2013, the BMW 3-Series expanded its lead over the Mercedes-Benz C-Class to 1302 units through five months. The 3-Series is Canada’s best-selling premium brand vehicle.

From a moneys-spent perspective, a perspective which certainly counts for something, the 3er’s base price ($35,900) makes many a 320i sale no more premium than the sale of a Ford Escape Titanium.

“Premium” and “luxury” mean different things to different people. This is why GoodCarBadCar publishes lists for all cars, all SUVs and crossovers, all trucks, and all minivans, and then throws them all into one post. Those lists will be completed later this week or early next week, and they can be used by you to form your own best-selling luxury lists. Include the Hyundai Genesis sedan, for example, and exclude the Acura ILX.

Canada’s 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In May 2013

Click Chart For Larger View

To satisfy as many readers as possible, GoodCarBadCar completes the list of 15 best-selling premium brand vehicles first, and then below posts another list of vehicles with base prices of at least $50,000. 10 of those 15 expensive vehicles are utility vehicles. The first list, meanwhile, is made up of nine crossovers, including the increasingly less popular BMW X1. Which sells slightly more often than the Cadillac ATS.

Canada’s interest in Cadillac and Lincoln is, at best, measurable. May 2013 luxury market share for Cadillac was 6.1%; Lincoln held just 3.7%. Those figures can be compared with the accomplishments of Cadillac and Lincoln in the United States: 9.5% and 5%, respectively.

All 250 Vehicles Ranked By May/2013 YTD Canadian Sales

Historical monthly and yearly sales figures for any of these models can always be accessed through the dropdown menu at GCBC’s Sales Stats page, and for those not viewing the mobile version of this site, near the top right of this page, as well. Canada’s favourite luxury vehicles are listed below, but you can see Canada’s 30 overall favourites here.

May 2014 – June 2013 – April 2013 – May 2012

Rank	Luxury Vehicle (So-Called Premium Brands)	May 2013	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
#1	BMW 3-Series	1156	+ 25.5%	4801	+ 22.8%
#2	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	973	– 9.0%	3499	– 25.1%
#3	Lexus RX	774	+ 17.3%	3049	+ 15.6%
#4	Acura RDX	690	+ 16.2%	2615	+ 70.7%
#5	BMW X3	604	+ 9.6%	2832	+ 80.3%
#6	Audi A4	600	+ 69.0%	2461	– 4.8%
#7	Audi Q5	589	+ 13.7%	2925	+ 16.6%
#8	Acura MDX	580	– 7.2%	2574	+ 21.4%
#9	Mercedes-Benz GLK	565	+ 14.6%	2605	+ 21.8%
#10	Acura ILX	488	+ 3386%	1439	+ 10,179%
#11	Cadillac SRX	363	+ 33.0%	1248	+ 7.7%
#12	Mercedes-Benz M-Class	351	– 26.1%	1745	– 36.0%
#13	Lexus ES	348	+ 88.1%	1308	+ 96.1%
#14	BMW X1	337	– 55.4%	1224	– 50.6%
#15	Cadillac ATS	323	—–	1185	—–

For the purposes of the above list, premium brands include Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volvo. Brands like Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Lotus don’t report specific monthly sales data. Bentley and Maserati only report brand totals. GCBC opinions and overwhelming reader input tossed Buick back in with the mainstream wolves.

Rank	Luxury Vehicle (Min. Base Price $50,000)	May 2013	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
#1	Acura MDX *	580	– 7.2%	2574	+ 21.4%
#2	Mercedes-Benz M-Class	351	– 26.1%	1745	– 36.0%
#3	BMW X5	290	– 12.7%	1164	– 22.8%
#4	Mercedes-Benz E-Class & CLS-Class	274	– 34.9%	1145	– 34.7%
#5	Mercedes-Benz GL-Class	259	+ 62.9%	1131	+ 58.6%
#6	BMW 5-Series	229	– 22.1%	935	– 24.7%
#7	Porsche Cayenne	204	+ 55.7%	745	+ 24.8%
#8	Chevrolet Suburban	153	+ 8.5%	480	– 1.0%
#9	Audi Q7	147	+ 2.8%	680	– 5.9%
#10	Land Rover Range Rover Sport	123	– 24.1%	673	+ 3.2%
#11	GMC Yukon XL	106	– 47.0%	353	– 31.2%
#12	Audi A6	97	+ 5.4%	385	– 7.7%
#13	Cadillac Escalade	80	– 10.1%	373	– 12.4%
#14	Audi A7	77	– 11.5%	318	– 24.5%
#15	Lexus GS	76	+ 22.6%	283	– 26.1%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC
Red font indicates year-over-year declining sales
$50,000 CDN (before delivery) is an arbitrary borderline, but if GCBC was to follow this new system of designating only expensive vehicles as luxury vehicles, $50K seemed like a safe place to begin – it equals the average U.S. new car transaction price plus $15,000, plus another $5000 to account for Canadian increases. Plenty of less expensive vehicles with specific models feature prices above $50,000 – M, RS, and AMG models come to mind, specifically – but in the case of this list, we know that none of the registrations were of cars priced at $35,900, as would be the case with the BMW 320i, which costs less than a Hyundai Santa Fe 2.0T Limited. The biggest problem with a $50,000 minimum price of entry? Cars like the Cadillac XTS, which starts at $48,995, sporty cars like the $48,600 Audi TT, and SUVs like the $49,930 Chevrolet Tahoe and $49,675 Volkswagen Touareg.
* With the new Acura MDX, set to arrive in July, Acura Canada will be dropping the base price below $50K.