Large Luxury Car Sales And Large Luxury SUV Sales In America – April 2012

April 2012 Large Luxury Car Sales Chart Click Either Chart For A Larger View

The Porsche Panamera was the only flagship four-door in America to post improved sales figures in April 2012. Year-over-year, sales of the awkward Panamera shot up 45% in April and have risen 19% through four months. Compared with April 2011, sales of the Audi A8, BMW 7-Series, Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS, and Mercedes-Benz S-Class slid, and in some cases, quite sharply. 

The Panamera hasn’t just improved on what had been falling sales in April 2011. Panamera sales maxed out at 521 units in December 2009, 807 in July 2010, and 654 in March 2011. With 868 sales, April 2012 was the Panamera’s best U.S. sales month since it went on sale nearly three years ago. Despite the S-Class’s decline last month, the big Mercedes-Benz still outsold the big Porsche, but by a narrow 80-unit margin.

April 2012 Large Luxury SUV Sales Chart

Porsche also sells an SUV, the Cayenne, sales of which slid 13% in April. At GoodCarBadCar, we group the Cayenne with middle-rung utilities like the M-Class, X5, and Range Rover Sport. But the Cayenne can be a tremendously expensive and elite SUV just like the $85,300 Mercedes-Benz GL550 or $126,665 Range Rover Supercharged Autobiography. The struggling Cayenne easily outsold the Rangie in April, but true luxury utility popularity is more apparent with the GL-Class. 

Mercedes-Benz’s big Escalade fighter sold 1.7 times for every Escalade. And that Escalade has three bodystyles with which to attract buyers. The regular ‘Slade, ESV, and EXT combined for 1592 sales in April. The GL’s year-to-date lead over the Escalade family has grown to more than 1000 units.

Historical sales data, both monthly and yearly, for each of these luxury cars and SUVs and every other vehicle currently on sale can be accessed through the dropdown menu at the top right of this page. After the jump, the April 2012 and year-to-date sales figures is broken down. Click either of the accompanying charts for a larger view.