Lexus sold the most vehicles among luxury brands for the month of August with 24,237 vehicles sold. This surpassed Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz with 22,686 units sold and BMW AG's BMW brand with 16,835 units sold. For 11 consecutive years, Lexus held the top spot in the luxury market in the U.S. It was bumped off the No. 1 position last year when its sales declined mostly because of the impact of the Japan earthquake. Last year, BMW was No. 1 while Mercedes-Benz came in second place. Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of U.S. marketing, said that for this year so far, Mercedes-Benz is the top luxury brand with sales of 182,098 units. BMW falls behind with 164,636. Lexus sold 150,604 units.
Czubay said that consumers made their choice to buy the vehicles largely due to increasing gasoline prices. Most consumers opted to buy fuel-efficient vehicles. Nevertheless, sales of its Fiesta small car plunged by 28% in August.
Focus compact car sales increased by 31.5%. Ford posted record sales for the Escape crossover and Fusion sedan. Meanwhile, the F-Series pickup reported its best sales month all year. Ford brand sales increased by 13.1%, while Lincoln brand sales climbed 1.7%. Chrysler said that it sold 3,045 units of the Dodge Dart compact sedan in August with the increase in volume distributed to more U.S. dealerships.
