Lexus December 2018 & Year-End Sales Report

I did me my part ... :cool:

View attachment 3101

Congrats, @RAL!

Congratulations RAL on getting a 2019 ES 350! Great color choice too! I have always loved the ES. I do miss my old 1996 ES 300...

Congrats RAL!!!

Industry wide again cars struggle while SUV's are being bought with no questions asked.

Congratulations RAL
Now we need a detailed comparison between Lexus , BMW & Benz

maiaramdan

Congratulations RAL
Now we need a detailed comparison between Lexus , BMW & Benz

Partially filling that bill is this article from Automotive News Europe:

Mercedes edges BMW for 2018 U.S. luxury sales crown
Mercedes-Benz kept the U.S. luxury sales crown for the third year in a row in 2018, beating rival BMW by just under 5,000 vehicles.

Mercedes sales were down 6.3 percent to 315,959, while BMW reported a rise of 1.7 percent to 311,014. Lexus volume dropped 2.2 percent to 298,310 and Audi deliveries fell 1.4 percent to 223,323. Tesla sold 182,400 cars, up from 48,000 the year before.

Overall, U.S. luxury sales fell 0.3 percent to 2 million vehicles, even as overall industry volume edged up 0.6 percent.

Acura leapfrogged Cadillac, selling 158,934 vehicles and topping Cadillac by 4,232 units.

Among other luxury brands, U.S. sales in 2018 rose at Land Rover, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Acura and Volvo but slipped at Jaguar, Infiniti, Genesis and Cadillac.

"Luxury will remain as hot as ever in 2019, with a slew of new product and new segment entries," said Akshay Anand, executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book. "The sales crown may mean a lot to automakers, but to consumers, what matters is finding the best bang for their buck in a time when most vehicles out there are rock-solid."

December sales
BMW, however, bested its chief German rival in December — with sales of 34,357. Mercedes, meanwhile, sold 32,016 vehicles, excluding commercial vans. Lexus' U.S. sales in December dipped 0.2 percent to 35,524. Audi's deliveries tumbled 16 percent to 22,765 units.

Mercedes' volume leaders in December included the GLC, C-class and E-class model lines.

The GLC took the lead with sales of 7,294, followed by C-class sales of 6,799. The E class rounded out the top three with 5,042 units sold.

"Despite the delayed availability of some of our most popular models in 2018, we achieved a solid closing of the year thanks to the excellent work of our dealers," Dietmar Exler, CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, said in a statement. "With the youngest and most comprehensive lineup in the luxury segment, we will continue to advance our position in the marketplace."

Crossovers accounted for 63 percent of BMW's U.S. sales last month.

For the tenth consecutive month, the BMW X3 was the top-selling BMW model in the U.S., followed by the new BMW X5. The BMW X3 and X5, combined, represented more than two out of every 5 BMW vehicles sold in the U.S. in December.

Sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids totaled 2,774 in December, up 2 percent from a year ago.

Porsche Cars North America reported December U.S. sales of 4,086 vehicles, a 4.4 percent uptick from the same time last year. Retail sales for 2018 climbed 3.2 percent to 57,202. It was the seventh consecutive record year of growth for Porsche.

The Macan led the pack with more than 23,504 deliveries in 2018, up 9.7 percent. Panamera sales rose 19 percent to 8,042 units. Meanwhile. Porsche 911 sales accelerated 7.6 percent to 9,647 units, helped by strong demand for GT models.

"A record 2018 is an excellent starting point for an even more dynamic 2019, when highlights will include the market entry of the next-generation 911, the updated Macan, and the launch of our first all-electric sports car, the Taycan, late in the year," Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said in a statement.

Overall, luxury sales dipped 0.4 percent to 217,338 cars and light trucks in December.

https://europe.autonews.com/sales-market/mercedes-edges-bmw-2018-us-luxury-sales-crown

And here Car and Driver counts down the 10 top-selling luxury cars and crossovers for 2018:

The Best-Selling Luxury Cars and SUVs of 2018
As in the mainstream, crossovers dominate the list. But the top seller is somewhat of a surprise.
By JOEY CAPPARELLA

2018 wasn't the best year for luxury automakers in the U.S. Many of the major players, including Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi, posted declines compared with last year. BMW was the key exception, posting a slight increase, as did smaller players Acura and Infiniti.

As in our ranking of mainstream best-sellers, the list of most popular luxury vehicles shows a pronounced shift towards crossovers and away from sedans. And Tesla has proven to be a formidable—if unconventional—player in the sales race, as you'll see by the end of this ranking.

10. Audi A4/A5 (60,538 units sold)
The A4 sedan was once Audi's bread and butter, but it's not the brand's best-selling model anymore—that would be the Q5 crossover you'll find higher on this list. We've combined A4 sales with the A5 range, which includes coupe, convertible, and hatchback bodystyles, to match Mercedes-Benz, which reports sales of all C-class variants together.

9. Cadillac XT5 (60,565 units sold)
Cadillac's attempt to reinvent itself as a legitimate BMW competitor hasn't paid off in the showroom. The sporty ATS and CTS sedans have been slow sellers, and meanwhile, Cadillac's top-selling vehicle is the cushy, decidedly non-sporty XT5 crossover, which competes with cruisers such as the Lexus RX.

8. Lexus NX (62,079 units sold)
The little sibling to the perennially popular RX, Lexus's size-small NX crossover has surpassed the ES sedan to become the second-best-selling Lexus. In 2019, it could face some internal competition, however, now that the even smaller UX has gone on sale.

7. Acura RDX (63,580 units sold)
Acura still sells cars, but its crossovers, the compact RDX and the three-row MDX, dominate its sales numbers. The RDX, fresh off a redesign, had a particularly strong 2018, with sales increasing nearly 24 percent compared with last year.

6. BMW X3/X4 (65,674 units sold)
It may not be long before BMW's X3 crossover surpasses the 3-series sedan in sales. The new-generation X3, which we've combined with its X4 "coupe" sibling here so that it lines up with Mercedes-Benz's GLC range, was up more than 50 percent in 2018.

5. Mercedes-Benz GLC-class (69,727 units sold)
When you think of Mercedes-Benz, you probably think of stately luxury sedans. But the shining sales star of the lineup is the GLC compact crossover. Not only does it compete in a hot segment of the luxury market, the GLC also has a wide variety of models comprising V-6 and V-8–powered AMG-tuned performance variants and a more rakish "coupe" bodystyle.

4. Audi Q5 (69,978 units sold)
It couldn't be much tighter in the sales race between Audi's popular Q5 crossover and its rival the Mercedes-Benz GLC, as the two were separated by just 251 units. And the Audi triumphed with only one bodystyle (there's no coupe-like version—yet) and a single performance variant, the SQ5.

3. BMW 3-series/4-series (75,957 units sold)
The BMW 3-series range, once a monolithic entity in the luxury world, is now split into 3-series sedan, wagon, and hatchback models, and 4-series coupe, convertible, and Gran Coupe variants. Both of these model lines posted significant declines in 2018 as BMW's crossovers gained ground. An all-new 3-series sedan will soon go on sale; it promises to be sportier than before in an attempt to repair the car's diminished reputation among enthusiasts. (We lumped together sales of the 3-series and 4-series here to match Mercedes-Benz, which reports a single sales number for all C-class sedans, coupes, and convertibles.)

2. Lexus RX (111,641 units sold)
Lexus tapped into something special when it first started selling the cushy RX crossover in the late 1990s. This defining luxury SUV is no longer innocuous to look at, thanks to its wildly angular styling, but it's still plush and inoffensive to drive. Sales were strong in 2018, likely thanks to the addition of a new three-row version, the RX L.

1. Tesla Model 3 (138,000 units sold)
While Tesla's 2018 has been filled with all sorts of manufacturing woes, it was eventually able to ramp up production enough to deliver its new electric Model 3 sedan in significant numbers—138,000 of them, according to Automotive News' count. We're curious to see what 2019 has in store for Tesla, as it has cut prices by $2000 to compensate for a reduced tax credit and still promises that the less-expensive Model 3 Standard Range version is on its way.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g25741172/best-selling-luxury-cars-suv-2018/

Here are the Lexus-centric excerpts and comments from WardsAuto:

Toyota Sales Dip in December, 2018
Record light-truck results couldn’t offset declines in cars for both Toyota and Lexus brands last year.
Christie Schweinsberg | Jan 03, 2019

... At Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand, car sales declined 4.8% and light trucks rose 2.1% last month.

Despite positive results from the new ES (6.7%) and LS (191.8%) sedans, Lexus’ other car nameplates posted hefty declines, including the IS (-21.0%) and the RC (-50.3%).

The new UX small CUV and the NX midsize CUV offset declines of the brand’s other utilities in December. Lexus sold 453 UXs and saw NX sales rise 18.3% while RX, GX and LX sales fell (-5.2%, -0.1% and -71.5%, respectively).

The UX 250h hybrid variant, whose gas-electric powertrain is a 2019 Wards 10 Best Engines winner, goes on sale this month in the U.S.

For the year, the Toyota Div. sold 2.128 million units, just shy of 2017’s 2.129 million, and Lexus delivered 298,310 vehicles, a 2.2% drop and not enough to place it ahead of German marques BMW and Mercedes, which were both leading Lexus through November...

At Lexus, the RX midsize CUV again was the brand’s best-selling model, and set to be the best-selling model of its kind among luxury competitors, with 111,641 units delivered in 2018, up 3.1%.

David Christ, Lexus group vice president, says the new 3-row RX-L drove total RX sales to a new annual record and made up 20%-30% of RX monthly deliveries in 2018...

An Automobile magazine article puts the 3-row RX L at "about 22%" of RX sales.

Finally, this Toyota brand-centric conclusion to the WardsAuto article is worth noting:

Toyota plans to launch 31 new, redesigned or refreshed models in the U.S. between now and 2021. One of those is a new-generation Supra sports car, debuting at the 2019 North American International Auto Show this month.

Despite falling sales of other sports cars, including the Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang, Hollis is undeterred.

“Not (every product is) always a business case – sometimes it’s an emotional case,” he says of bringing the Supra back. “It’s a decision made by a CEO of a company (Akio Toyoda) who loves vehicles and loves driving.”

https://www.wardsauto.com/industry/toyota-sales-dip-december-2018

@Joaquin Ruhi

Wow, thanks a lot for these detailed info
So in the top 10 list by brand / model
2 Lexus
2 Audi
2 BMW
1 Tesla
1 Acura
1 Benz
1 Cadillac

Or
7 CUV / SUV
3 Sedan / Coupe

Lexus Canada finished the year with 24,111 sales, down 2.6% compared to 2017. The RX was the best-selling model with 9,329 sales, followed by the NX with 7,859. The two crossovers accounted for 71.2% of all brand sales in 2018.

http://media.toyota.ca/releases/toy...-year-ever-with-231-646-vehicles-sold-in-2018

I cannot believe the NX outsold the ES... crazy...

mikeavelli

I cannot believe the NX outsold the ES... crazy...

The 6th-to-7th-generation ES transition might have played a minor role in this, but in the crossover-crazy world we live in (plus the ES's traditional demographic slowly dying out), I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner.