Top 15 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America – October 2015

During a month in which BMW’s steadily improving passenger car volume stalled, the top-selling car at BMW, the iconic 3-Series, posted an 8% year-over-year U.S. sales improvement.

U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model – October 2015 YTD

With more than 11,000 October sales, the 3-Series outsold the next-best-selling premium brand automobile by nearly 3000 units and the next-best-selling premium brand passenger car by more than 3700 units. Always essential to BMW, the 3-Series in October 2015 accounted for 37.4% of all BMW brand sales, up from 33.3% one year ago.

Click Chart To Expand

For the first time, U.S. sales of the Acura TLX climbed above 5000 units in October 2015. With 5777 sales in total, the TLX outsold stalwarts like the Lexus ES and absent rivals like the Audi A4 and Cadillac ATS.

The TLX was one of three Acuras among the 12 top-selling premium brand cars in America in October 2015.

Mercedes-Benz, with the third, eighth, and 11th-ranked luxury vehicles, was the only other brand to land three products in October’s top 15. One of those products, the GLE, generated 4176 sales. Its predecessor, the M-Class, produced another 704 sales. Combined GLE/M sales rose 29%.

Historical monthly and yearly sales figures for any of these top-selling luxury vehicles 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.

October 2016 • November 2015 • September 2015 • October 2014

Rank	Premium Brand Vehicle	October 2015	October 2014	% Change	2015 YTD	2014 YTD	% Change
#1	BMW 3-Series	11,012	10,199	8.0%	80,832	76,976	5.0%
#2	Lexus RX	8018	8057	-0.5%	77,940	84,273	-7.5%
#3	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	7283	7412	-1.7%	71,818	57,582	24.7%
#4	Cadillac SRX	6020	3640	65.4%	56,732	45,348	25.1%
#5	Acura TLX	5777	4890	18.1%	40,585	11,060	267%
#6	Lexus ES	5426	5932	-8.5%	52,388	58,842	-11.0%
#7	Audi Q5	4863	3571	36.2%	41,429	33,685	23.0%
#8	Mercedes-Benz E-Class	4661	3936	18.4%	39,986	56,545	-29.3%
#9	Acura MDX	4405	5324	-17.3%	47,862	53,632	-10.8%
#10	BMW X5	4292	3355	27.9%	44,782	36,376	23.1%
#11	Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class	4176	—	—	9470	—	—
#12	Acura RDX	3891	3178	22.4%	42,393	36,273	16.9%
#13	Infiniti Q50	3811	2964	28.6%	35,414	28,828	22.8%
#14	Infiniti QX60	3669	2285	60.6%	33,047	24,898	32.7%
#15	Lexus NX	3399	—	—	35,346	—	—

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. Buick has been excluded with a bunch of other automakers that don’t sell vehicles with base prices higher than $40K.

Rank	Vehicles With Base Prices Above $45K	October 2015	October 2014	% Change	2015 YTD	2014 YTD	% Change
#1	Chevrolet Tahoe	6624	7912	-16.3%	71,352	78,440	-9.0%
#2	Mercedes-Benz E-Class	4661	3936	18.4%	39,986	56,545	-29.3%
#3	BMW X5	4292	3355	27.9%	44,782	36,376	23.1%
#4	Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class	4176	—	—	9470	—	—
#5	Ford Expedition	3924	3720	5.5%	34,407	36,411	-5.5%
#6	Chevrolet Suburban	3585	4615	-22.3%	39,300	43,203	-9.0%
#7	GMC Yukon	3525	2977	18.4%	33,536	33,661	-0.4%
#8	Cadillac Escalade	3151	2143	47.0%	28,281	23,495	20.4%
	Cadillac Escalade *	1838	1390	32.2%	16,815	15,095	11.4%
	Cadillac Escalade ESV *	1313	753	74.4%	11,466	8400	36.5%
	Cadillac Escalade EXT *	—	—	—	2	50	-96.0%
#9	GMC Yukon XL	2722	2148	26.7%	23,661	24,076	-1.7%
#10	BMW 5-Series	2693	4914	-45.2%	36,531	44,082	-17.1%
#11	Mercedes-Benz GL-Class	2613	2410	8.4%	21,942	20,138	9.0%
#12	Volvo XC90	2565	267	861%	7406	3797	95.0%
#13	Chevrolet Corvette	2526	2959	-14.6%	28,924	28,909	0.1%
#14	Lexus GX460	2223	1936	14.8%	20,083	17,935	12.0%
#15	Audi Q7	2106	1738	21.2%	16,527	14,843	11.3%

Source: Automakers & ANDC
$45,000 USD (before delivery) is an arbitrary borderline, but if GCBC was to follow this system of designating only expensive vehicles as luxury vehicles, adding approximately $15,000 to the average new car transaction price seemed like a fitting place to begin. Plenty of less expensive vehicles with specific models feature prices above $45,000 – M, RS, and AMG models come to mind, specifically – but in the case of the second list, we know that none of the registrations were of cars priced at $32,750, as would be the case with the new BMW 320i, which costs less than a Honda Accord V6 Touring.
* Escalade breakdown by variant

Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America – October 2015
Top 20 Best-Selling SUVs In America – October 2015
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings – October 2015 YTD