Top 15 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America – 2014 Year End

It’s certainly not a shock to see the BMW 3-Series (and its 4-Series offspring, formerly known as the 3-Series two-doors) atop these rankings of America’s best-selling luxury vehicles in the 2014 calendar year.

• U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model – 2014 Year End

Click Chart To Expand

Not a single month passed over the last year in which the 3-Series/4-Series was not ranked number one on these pages.

By the end of December, the 3er/4er family had generated 89% more sales than the next-best-selling premium brand car, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, a vehicle which spent much of the year transitioning out of the previous-generation and into the new iteration.

America’s top-selling luxury utility vehicle was once again the Lexus RX. Will the RX continue to sell in such large numbers now that it has a smaller rival in Lexus showrooms?

It appears so, as Lexus sold 2905 NXs in December, RX volume rose 3.5% to 13,625 units.

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.

2015 Year End • 2013 Year End • 2012 Year End • 2011 Year End • 2010 Year End

Rank	Premium Brand Vehicle	2014	2013	% Change
#1	BMW 3-Series & 4-Series *	142,232	119,521	19.0%
#2	Lexus RX	107,490	103,920	3.4%
#3	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	75,065	88,251	-14.9%
#4	Lexus ES	72,508	72,581	-0.1%
#5	Mercedes-Benz E-Class	66,400	69,803	-4.9%
#6	Acura MDX	65,603	53,040	23.7%
#7	Cadillac SRX	53,578	56,776	-5.6%
#8	BMW 5-Series	52,704	56,863	-7.3%
#9	Lexus IS	51,358	35,017	46.7%
#10	BMW X5	47,031	39,818	18.1%
#11	Mercedes-Benz M-Class	46,726	41,326	13.1%
#12	Acura RDX	44,865	44,750	0.3%
#13	Audi Q5	42,420	40,355	5.1%
#14	Audi A4 *	38,679	42,130	-8.2%
#15	Infiniti Q50	36,899	17,816	107%

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 $45,000	2014	2013	% Change
#1	Chevrolet Tahoe	97,726	83,502	17.0%
#2	Chevrolet Suburban	55,009	51,260	7.3%
#3	BMW 5-Series	52,704	56,863	-7.3%
#4	BMW X5	47,031	39,818	18.1%
#5	Mercedes-Benz M-Class	46,726	41,326	13.1%
#6	GMC Yukon	41,569	28,302	46.9%
#7	Chevrolet Corvette	34,839	17,291	101%
#8	Cadillac Escalade	30,522	22,514	35.6%
	Cadillac Escalade ^	19,482	12,592	54.7%
	Cadillac Escalade ESV ^	10,987	7950	38.2%
	Cadillac Escalade EXT ^	53	1972	-97.3%
#9	GMC Yukon XL	29,752	31,258	-4.8%
#10	Mercedes-Benz GL-Class	26,597	29,912	-11.1%
#11	Mercedes-Benz S-Class	25,276	13,303	90.0%
#12	Lexus GX460	22,685	12,136	86.9%
#13	Lexus GS	22,198	19,742	12.4%
#14	Audi Q7	18,517	15,978	15.9%
#15	Land Rover Range Rover Sport	17,897	15,976	12.0%

Source: Automakers & ANDC
Red font indicates year-over-year declining sales
$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. The biggest problem with a $45,000 minimum price of entry? Cars like the Cadillac XTS, which starts at $44,600, and the Audi A6, which starts at $44,800.
^ Escalade breakdown by variant.
* BMW USA, not GoodCarBadCar, has chosen to combine sales of the 3-Series and 4-Series. GCBC combines sales of the Audi A4 and Audi A4 Allroad. None-Allroad sales were down 7.5% to 33,993 in 2014.
Cadillac’s new CTS – 31,115 2014 sales – starts at $45,100, but the lingering CTS Coupe is a sub-$40K car, and the wagon starts at $42,195. The estimates that Tesla sold 26,400 copies of the Model S in 2014, but estimates for Tesla have typically proven to be on the very high side.