Small And Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America – March 2016 YTD

Bearing a surprisingly large chunk of the blame for the American auto industry’s failure to live up to expectations in March 2016 were a number of faltering luxury automakers.

U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model – March 2016 YTD
U.S. Car Sales Rankings By Model – March 2016 YTD

Auto sales in March rose 3%, well off the 7% pace forecasted. Moreover, because March 2016 hosted two additional selling days compared with March 2015, the daily selling rate for the industry was down 4%. With pickup truck sales booming, SUVs and crossovers continuing apace, and even minivans gaining strength, how’d that happen?

Consider the losses incurred by the car divisions at most premium brands. BMW’s cars fell 32% in March; 26% in the first-quarter of 2016. The 3-Series, a perennial favourite among premium auto buyers, is down 30% so far this year, a loss of 6120 units for BMW’s U.S. dealers.

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Mercedes-Benz’s cars are down 17% this year, having plunged 19% in the month of March. The C-Class, the greatest challenger for the aforementioned 3-Series, is down 15% this year, generating 3104 fewer sales in 2016 Q1 than 2015 Q1. 

Lincoln’s cars fell 11% in March. Cadillac cars – while welcoming the new CT6 at the tail end of March – fell 4% last month. Infiniti car volume was down 11% in March 2016. Lexus car sales fell 14% in March. Audi’s cars were down 2% last month. Volvo’s cars plunged 34% in March.

You can click any model name in the tables below to find historical monthly and yearly U.S. auto sales data. You can also select a make and model at GCBC’s Sales Stats page. These tables are sortable, so you can rank luxury brand cars any which way you like. Suggestions on how GCBC should break down segments can be passed on through the Contact page.

Click Column Headers To Sort • March 2017 • April 2016 • February 2016 • March 2015

Source: Automakers & ANDC
* vehicle also displayed in another GCBC segment breakdown
^ A4 includes Allroad, without which A4 sales were up 42.4% to 3226 in March; up 14.5% to 6378 YTD.
GCBC isn’t here to break down segments, an impossible task for any group, but to display sales data for the sake of comparison. The more ways sales data can be displayed, the better. This explains why you’ll see the Acura ILX here but also with mainstream cars like the Buick Verano, too, and the Audi A5 is also displayed with coupes and convertibles… because readers have wanted it both ways. Hyundai USA, not GoodCarBadCar, chooses to combine sales figures for the Genesis sedan and Genesis Coupe, forcing us to include the Genesis with volume-brand cars on pricing grounds before we even get to the “brand status” issue. The K900, Equus, XTS, and CT6 are here not because of their size but because of their price points, their lack of direct comparability with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. You can always find the sales results for EVERY vehicle and form your own competitive sets by using the All Vehicle Rankings posts.

RECOMMENDED READING
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America – March 2017
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America – April 2016
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America – February 2016
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America – March 2015
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America – March 2016
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings – March 2016
Large Luxury Car Sales In America – March 2016