Lexus in danger of losing US luxury crown to Mercedes

July 23, 2010 Chris Chin

After being dominated by Lexus for the past decade, the top spot in the U.S. luxury market is about to be taken over by Mercedes-Benz. While Lexus jumped 19% in deliveries during the first half of this year, Mercedes-Benz increased 25%. Lexus is in real danger of seeing their 2.1% market share dip to 1.98, as BMW, the world”s leading luxury auto, also increases U.S. market share.

“It’s very likely Mercedes-Benz may take over the lead this year,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends for researcher Truecar.com in Santa Monica, California. “The cumulative impact of all the recalls hasn’t really shown up yet. It’s more likely to be seen in the second half.”

While there is tremendous opportunity here for the German manufacturers to overtake the U.S. market, BMW doesn”t like to give all the credit to Toyota”s recall woes. Markus Sagemann of BMW, points out the freshness of the BMW lineup, as the company will have replaced 60% of its models by 2012.

-By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News