Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America – June 2011

Booming BMW 3-Series sales are partially to thank for BMW’s 12.8% year-over-year rise in June 2011. U.S. luxury car buyers bought more X3s and 5-Series’ BMWs than they had in June 2010, as well, but 3-Series sales shot up by 1960 units. Had sales remained level the 3-Series would still have been America’s best-selling luxury vehicle in June, as the Lexus RX slid 34.1% from 7796.

With the RX’s plunge in volume, and its subsequent fall from second spot in May to third spot in June, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class took over the number two position on 19.2% gains. Year-to-date, the E-Class is America’s third-favourite luxury vehicle.

In addition to selling America’s most popular premium brand vehicle, BMW’s 5-Series was ranked fifth, the X5 slotted into 11th, and the X3 posted a 230% improvement to remain steady at 16th. The BMW you won’t see here is the 7-Series, sales of which fell 68.4% to 542. In June 2010, BMW sold more than 1700 of them. But you won’t see any of the 7-Series’ direct competitors here, either. Americans buy premium vehicles, for sure, but they prefer the less expensive, smaller machines… or SUVs.

Take the Volvo S60 as an example. A year ago, Volvo USA sold fewer than 5000 vehicles. Not a single one of those 5000 vehicles was the S60. Now, even as the S40, V50, and V70 tail off and the S80 disappoints, a new generation of S60 was Volvo’s best seller in June with 2430 sales. The 2012 S60 has a pleasant starting price under $31,000. That 7-Series, a car that BMW would be surprised to sell 2430 of in one month, has a base price of $71,000. That price difference goes a long way to explaining why you rarely see cars like the 7-Series or Benz S-Class in this post.

America’s 30 best-selling luxury vehicles from June 2011 are in the table below. Two are Swedish, twelve wear German badges, seven are Japanese, seven are American – including the Chevrolet Corvette – and the remaining two are split between Korea and Great Britain.