Top 15 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America – May 2016

The Lexus RX’s 10% increase in an abbreviated sales month for the U.S. auto industry allowed Lexus’ best-selling model to maintain its position as America’s top-selling premium brand vehicle in May 2016.

Download All U.S. May 2016 YTD U.S. Sales Data For $5.99
U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model – May 2016 YTD

RX volume grew by 804 units and are up by 4321 units through the first five months of 2016. The Lexus RX’s closest rival, Mercedes-Benz’s C-Class, is nearly 11,000 sales behind and has already lost 4583 sales in 2016.

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The RX’s closest utility vehicle rival in May was the Audi Q5, more than 4000 sales behind.

Cadillac’s SRX, traditionally one of the two top rivals for the RX, is transitioning into third-gen form with a new name: XT5. Combined sales of the SRX and XT5 fell 22% to 4493 in May.

11 of the 15 top-selling premium brand vehicles in America in May 2016 were utility vehicles. Among vehicles priced above $50,000, 10 of the top 15 were SUVs/crossovers.

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.

June 2016 • April 2016 • May 2015

Rank	Premium Brand Vehicle	May 2016	May 2015	% Change	2016 YTD	2015 YTD	% Change
#1	Lexus RX	8804	8000	10.1%	41,367	37,046	11.7%
#2	BMW 3-Series	7376	8819	-16.4%	26,157	35,905	-27.1%
#3	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	6954	7413	-6.2%	30,438	35,021	-13.1%
#4	Lexus ES	5373	5553	-3.2%	22,833	24,299	-6.0%
#5	Audi Q5	4736	4280	10.7%	17,567	17,396	1.0%
#6	Acura RDX	4566	5343	-14.5%	22,683	20,657	9.8%
#7	BMW X5	4372	5797	-24.6%	18,186	21,643	-16.0%
#8	Infiniti QX60	4274	3141	36.1%	16,592	14,775	12.3%
#9	Acura MDX	4208	5421	-22.4%	20,897	24,828	-15.8%
#10	Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class & GLK-Class	4183	2558	63.5%	19,620	11,286	73.8%
#11	Lexus NX	4031	4014	0.4%	19,221	16,546	16.2%
#12	Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class & M-Class	4003	3991	0.3%	20,671	19,419	6.4%
#13	BMW 4-Series	3641	4049	-10.1%	16,092	18,268	-11.9%
#14	Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class & GL-Class	3358	2322	44.6%	10,229	10,852	-5.7%
#15	BMW X3	3295	2575	28.0%	15,928	10,982	45.0%

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 $50K	May 2016	May 2015	% Change	2016 YTD	2015 YTD	% Change
#1	Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class & M-Class	4003	3991	0.3%	20,671	19,419	6.4%
#2	Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class & GL-Class	3358	2322	44.6%	10,229	10,852	-5.7%
#3	BMW 5-Series	3264	4257	-23.3%	17,428	20,616	-15.5%
#4	Mercedes-Benz E-Class	3154	3942	-20.0%	16,155	18,641	-13.3%
#5	Cadillac Escalade	2943	2661	10.6%	14,057	13,799	1.9%
	Cadillac Escalade ^	1856	1617	14.8%	8685	8388	3.5%
	Cadillac Escalade ESV ^	1087	1044	4.1%	5372	5409	-0.7%
#6	Chevrolet Corvette	2673	3514	-23.9%	12,185	15,500	-21.4%
#7	Audi Q7	2663	1823	46.1%	12,128	6895	75.9%
#8	GMC Yukon XL	2384	2516	-5.2%	11,604	11,031	5.2%
#9	Lexus GX460	1859	2182	-14.8%	9052	9612	-5.8%
#10	Land Rover Range Rover Sport	1563	1674	-6.6%	8748	9657	-9.4%
#11	Mercedes-Benz S-Class	1510	1922	-21.4%	7006	8987	-22.0%
#12	Infiniti QX80	1424	1058	34.6%	6519	6330	3.0%
#13	Porsche Cayenne	1293	1392	-7.1%	6777	6691	1.3%
#14	Land Rover Range Rover	1044	1516	-31.1%	6994	7893	-11.4%
#15	BMW 7-Series	1012	943	7.3%	4197	4391	-4.4%

Source: Automakers & ANDC
^ Escalade breakdown by variant. A previous version of this article said SRX/XT5 sales were down 50% in May.
$50,000 USD (before delivery) is an arbitrary borderline, upgraded in 2016 from $45K last year by $5K, but if GCBC was to follow this system of designating only expensive vehicles as luxury vehicles, adding approximately $20,000 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 $50,000 – 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 below that borderline.