[BMWGirlFL]

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Mercedes loses premium sales crown to BMW, as chip shortage hits deliveries First time in five years that the BMW has outsold its German rival

Mercedes-Benz sold 2.05 million passenger vehicles globally in 2021, losing its crown as the world's top-selling luxury brand to BMW. It's the first time in five years that the BMW brand has outsold Mercedes.

Sales of Mercedes brand passenger cars fell 5 percent to 2.05 units last year, parent Daimler said Friday. Volume slumped by 25 percent in the fourth quarter as the semiconductor shortage continued to hit supply.

BMW brand sold a record 2.2 million vehicles in 2021, the automaker said earlier this week. The company will release official figures later this month....

The sales numbers for Mercedes do not include the Smart brand or light commercial vans. BMW's total is just for the namesake brand and excludes the group's Mini and Rolls-Royce marques....

https://europe.autonews.com/automake...its-deliveries

BMW Tops Lexus, Mercedes in U.S. Luxury Sales for Third Year

BMW AG outsold rivals Mercedes-Benz and Lexus in 2021 to lead U.S. luxury-car sales for a third consecutive year, buoyed by its efforts to navigate the chip shortage plaguing the auto industry.

The maker of the X5 SUV and 3 Series sedan trounced Daimler AG’s Mercedes by 32,705 units in the fourth quarter and more than 60,000 cars for the full year, a much wider gap than when the two were neck-and-neck amid the pandemic shutdowns of 2020. BMW’s deliveries jumped 21% last year to 336,644, while Mercedes sales rose less than 1%.

BMW capitalized on strong sales of its X3 crossover and X5 models, while sedans rebounded by 18% for the year. Pieter Nota, a member of the company’s board overseeing sales and branding, expects another boost this year as the company brings its electric iX sedan to battle with Tesla Inc. amid growing EV sales.

“Demand for fully electric vehicles is really picking up,” Nota said in an interview. BMW wants to double the 100,000 battery-powered vehicles it sold in 2021 globally, he added.

The 2021 performance was aided by BMW’s decision early in the pandemic to maintain many of its semiconductor orders, according to Nota. While some competitors cut back, BMW’s bullish stance paid off months later.

Just as Toyota Motor Corp. outsold General Motors Co. in overall U.S. sales last year in part because of its supply-chain savvy, the luxury market also became a test of which companies could best navigate the tumult. Nota expects the chip shortage to continue to squeeze luxury sales in the next few months, but may ease up in the second half of the year....

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...for-third-year

[SHARMAATL]

Well gentlemen, the wild new designs are here to stay...

[Lovegreatcars]

After speaking to multiple Porsche and Mercedes dealerships and sales people around the country I can tell you they couldn't care less. The markups the dealers and sales people are achieving make up for the lack of cars. Sales people don't have to deal with people pumping them on price. It's a take or leave it market place.

[GOLFFRR]

Originally Posted by SHARMAATL

Well gentlemen, the wild new designs are here to stay...

I guess thats one way to look at it. They must know what they are doing

[SteveinArizona]

Originally Posted by SHARMAATL

Well gentlemen, the wild new designs are here to stay...

Not necessarily. The real test will be when all automakers are no longer supply constrained and consumers have choices.

[uniqueMR]

[rmh12]

anecdotal data point. I've never shopped/owned a luxury brand before this summer. Now once I decided i wanted a cabriolet sports car, the options narrowed significantly. That said, Mercedes and BMW were the only real options (Porsche cabriolet was out of price range).

So (this is gonna sound real millennial of me) all I had to go on was online reviews and car vlogs. No one had any cars to actually see at the dealerships. Couldn't test drive, couldn't touch, feel or see the materials. Had to wait 4 weeks to get one that was in transit to a dealer 300 miles away.

I'll say this.. every car manufacturer needs to double down on their website. If that's how we are going to shop and buy cars in the future, these manufacturer websites are trash.

They are good marketing content but they lack the ability to really explore a vehicle in detail.

Most of BMWs pictures on the website are crappy over saturated hype pictures or poorly detailed CGI.

Just look at the BMW individual configuration site. Looks like something I built when I was learning PHP in 1999. How are you suppose to get excited and chose a $5k paint option with such terrible pictures?

What manufacturer has the best website you think?

[pr0gi]

Good for BMW but couldn't care less. I'm trying to figure out should I get the X3 M40i or the X5 45e. BMW should start to give cars to review for short term tests. All they do is state some facts and drive like maniacs.. The only review of short term ownership I saw was about the X5 45e from some English chap. That's what gonna help. Not pumped numbers.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

Not necessarily. The real test will be when all automakers are no longer supply constrained and consumers have choices.

Could not say this any better. When market forces return and rebalance supply, demand, and price points, consumers will begin voting with their purchasing dollars (or currency of choice). It will be illuminating see the sales statistics from BMW and BMW's competitors. I see eye-opening numbers and "how do we fix this" dialogs in conference rooms.

[TheBingoBalls]

Originally Posted by rmh12

anecdotal data point. I've never shopped/owned a luxury brand before this summer. Now once I decided i wanted a cabriolet sports car, the options narrowed significantly. That said, Mercedes and BMW were the only real options (Porsche cabriolet was out of price range).

So (this is gonna sound real millennial of me) all I had to go on was online reviews and car vlogs. No one had any cars to actually see at the dealerships. Couldn't test drive, couldn't touch, feel or see the materials. Had to wait 4 weeks to get one that was in transit to a dealer 300 miles away.

I'll say this.. every car manufacturer needs to double down on their website. If that's how we are going to shop and buy cars in the future, these manufacturer websites are trash.

They are good marketing content but they lack the ability to really explore a vehicle in detail.

Most of BMWs pictures on the website are crappy over saturated hype pictures or poorly detailed CGI.

Just look at the BMW individual configuration site. Looks like something I built when I was learning PHP in 1999. How are you suppose to get excited and chose a $5k paint option with such terrible pictures?

What manufacturer has the best website you think?

None. Some are better than others but overall, manufacturer and dealership websites are poor in general. It's all about Instagram and TikTok now when it comes to showcasing cars. It may not be the car you want to build or buy, but now I can get a complete 360 walk through of a car and it is better than anything seen on a manufacturer or dealer website.

For me, website is only good for pricing (and even that may not be accurate) but I know a good ballpark figure if I want to spec a car from factory.

Something as simple as this Instagram post is infinitely better than what you can see on any website from a dealer or manufacturer.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYjUMGP...dium=copy_link

[Sedan_Clan]

Good for BMW! I wish nothing but success for the company.

[Lady Jane]

Maybe the biggest sellers were the "non-wild" design ones helping BMW with the win.

[chassis]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

Not necessarily. The real test will be when all automakers are no longer supply constrained and consumers have choices.

+1 This.

If MB accepts a lower unit volume but higher margin business model, they have taken a step down the slippery slope. Other manufacturers will find ways to chip off unit sales from the market, and a higher margin/lower volume player will smile and think life is good because unit margin is higher. It’s a diminishing returns strategy.

[Staszek]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

Could not say this any better. When market forces return and rebalance supply, demand, and price points, consumers will begin voting with their purchasing dollars (or currency of choice). It will be illuminating see the sales statistics from BMW and BMW's competitors. I see eye-opening numbers and "how do we fix this" dialogs in conference rooms.

Also, BMW actually has cars right now. Few options missing here or there, but when we were test driving to buy our X7 recently, BMW was the only place that 1) had one for me to drive and 2) I could place an order and have an actual time frame to get it.

Mercedes discontinued the GLS580 and had one preowned GLS450on the lot to drive.

Infiniti only had preowned QX80s (not that I was seriously considering anyway but my wife wanted to try since it was her car) and they would only be getting 1 in next month at a lower spec, if you ordered it could be 4-12 months to get a car if at all.

It's pretty much the same across the industry, BMW again while removing options faired much better than most automakers.

I put a preorder in on an F150 Lighting for fun since it was only $150, and just got a note that it's very possible I won't even get to build an order until the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023. They were supposed to start taking those at end of 2021.

[wesleyan92]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

Not necessarily. The real test will be when all automakers are no longer supply constrained and consumers have choices.

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

Could not say this any better. When market forces return and rebalance supply, demand, and price points, consumers will begin voting with their purchasing dollars (or currency of choice). It will be illuminating see the sales statistics from BMW and BMW's competitors. I see eye-opening numbers and "how do we fix this" dialogs in conference rooms.

LOL - you guys can stay on the doomsday bandwagon that sales will tank because of the perceived shit design directions.

First it was the horrible grills that was going to kill BMW; didn't happen. But wait, the sales going up is because of the market imbalance....

[Mr.E46M3]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

Not necessarily. The real test will be when all automakers are no longer supply constrained and consumers have choices.

…and ppl will remember which dealers didn’t take advantage of them. Bc you can doesn’t mean you should!

[TheBingoBalls]

But what's to say that things will go back to what they were before pre-COVID? Across the board, I think BMW/Audi/Mercedes, while volume might be down in some regions, profit is likely higher so what's the reason to pump dealers with supply? If everyone's profit is up with "supply issues", there really is no reason to oversupply dealers only to discount and achieve relatively the same amount of profit.

Then you start looking at cash flow, floor plan and interest at a dealership level and those things are no longer a burden.

[Staszek]

Originally Posted by wesleyan92

LOL - you guys can stay on the doomsday bandwagon that sales will tank because of the perceived shit design directions.

First it was the horrible grills that was going to kill BMW; didn't happen. But wait, the sales going up is because of the market imbalance....

For the record my comment wasn't about the grill, I actually think while it may turn off traditional BMW buyers it's pulling in others. I have had a few people say they loved it, I dont mind it at all on the i4.

I actually hope that BMW doesn't keep winning the sales record personally. I would rather them focus on the right cars and if they win that's cool but not a priority. Winning that damn thing is one of the reasons GM turned to garbage and just made crap cars at a loss to keep the title. They lost the US title this year to Toyota for the first time in 90 years and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

[NorCalAthlete]

I was cross shopping Mercedes, but...

1. When I went into the dealership and wanted to test drive, they couldn't have cared less. I spoke to one person who said he'd get a sales guy over to talk to me, and I waited 20 min before just walking out. All the while, at least 3 sales guys were having a laughing / joking convo halfway across the room. Contrast that with me going into the BMW dealership, telling them I wanted a test drive, and they hooked me up with a BMW Genius who spent half the day with me test driving different cars with different option packages (w/ and w/out the adaptive suspension, 440 vs M4, different seat packages / audio packages). Let me take it on a freeway loop to replicate parts of my commute that I hate, everything. Absolutely sold me on the car from a brand customer service perspective alone, without even trying to sell me anything just letting me explore the options I was interested in.

2. Friend of mine went from an X5 to a Benz and ditched it after less than a year and went back to BMW. Another friend with a Benz is in a lemon law case with his for a recurring mold in the AC vent issue. Customer service was barely amicable at best with both of them. The one with the lemon lawsuit still loves the cars as a brand, but mainly because "my whole family is just a Mercedes family".

Meanwhile my brother's been super happy with his M235 for years and his 318 before that; my cousin's been loving various M3s over the years, multiple buddies with M3 / M5 / X5s over the years, just way more smiles and better customer service all around.

To me, that's worth far, far, far more than "blah blah dead horse pig snout".

[EXE46]

BMW isn't marketing to us fanboys anymore, the new design is to draw in a new clientele. Just two weeks ago I took out two youngest members of the team for lunch in my G20. on the way back we came across a G22 and the two lads, male and female in early twenties went berserk. proclaiming how awesome the car looked lol, of course I didn't interject with my biases.

I just told them this is the new gen coupe and threw a few specs their way regarding the car's motor. It was then it dawned on me that this is the demographic that drools over these new designs and those are the people they are targeting so win win on BMWs part.

[wesleyan92]

Originally Posted by Staszek

For the record my comment wasn't about the grill, I actually think while it may turn off traditional BMW buyers it's pulling in others. I have had a few people say they loved it, I dont mind it at all on the i4.

I actually hope that BMW doesn't keep winning the sales record personally. I would rather them focus on the right cars and if they win that's cool but not a priority. Winning that damn thing is one of the reasons GM turned to garbage and just made crap cars at a loss to keep the title. They lost the US title this year to Toyota for the first time in 90 years and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Thank you for the clarification. I believe these sales titles actually do drive brand value, perception, etc. It translates into tangible benefits like hiring good talent, having stronger leverage in running your partner/vendor ecosystem, etc.

So, to me, it is awesome they won the year. To me, it will translate to more resources and credibility for BMW to continue to innovate and give us awesome cars.

[pookiemalibu]

Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete

I was cross shopping Mercedes, but...

1. When I went into the dealership and wanted to test drive, they couldn't have cared less. I spoke to one person who said he'd get a sales guy over to talk to me, and I waited 20 min before just walking out. All the while, at least 3 sales guys were having a laughing / joking convo halfway across the room. Contrast that with me going into the BMW dealership, telling them I wanted a test drive, and they hooked me up with a BMW Genius who spent half the day with me test driving different cars with different option packages (w/ and w/out the adaptive suspension, 440 vs M4, different seat packages / audio packages). Let me take it on a freeway loop to replicate parts of my commute that I hate, everything. Absolutely sold me on the car from a brand customer service perspective alone, without even trying to sell me anything just letting me explore the options I was interested in.

2. Friend of mine went from an X5 to a Benz and ditched it after less than a year and went back to BMW. Another friend with a Benz is in a lemon law case with his for a recurring mold in the AC vent issue. Customer service was barely amicable at best with both of them. The one with the lemon lawsuit still loves the cars as a brand, but mainly because "my whole family is just a Mercedes family".

Meanwhile my brother's been super happy with his M235 for years and his 318 before that; my cousin's been loving various M3s over the years, multiple buddies with M3 / M5 / X5s over the years, just way more smiles and better customer service all around.

To me, that's worth far, far, far more than "blah blah dead horse pig snout".

Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete

I was cross shopping Mercedes, but...

1. When I went into the dealership and wanted to test drive, they couldn't have cared less. I spoke to one person who said he'd get a sales guy over to talk to me, and I waited 20 min before just walking out. All the while, at least 3 sales guys were having a laughing / joking convo halfway across the room. Contrast that with me going into the BMW dealership, telling them I wanted a test drive, and they hooked me up with a BMW Genius who spent half the day with me test driving different cars with different option packages (w/ and w/out the adaptive suspension, 440 vs M4, different seat packages / audio packages). Let me take it on a freeway loop to replicate parts of my commute that I hate, everything. Absolutely sold me on the car from a brand customer service perspective alone, without even trying to sell me anything just letting me explore the options I was interested in.

2. Friend of mine went from an X5 to a Benz and ditched it after less than a year and went back to BMW. Another friend with a Benz is in a lemon law case with his for a recurring mold in the AC vent issue. Customer service was barely amicable at best with both of them. The one with the lemon lawsuit still loves the cars as a brand, but mainly because "my whole family is just a Mercedes family".

Meanwhile my brother's been super happy with his M235 for years and his 318 before that; my cousin's been loving various M3s over the years, multiple buddies with M3 / M5 / X5s over the years, just way more smiles and better customer service all around.

To me, that's worth far, far, far more than "blah blah dead horse pig snout".

+1000

Same. Exact. Experience. Had to plea a client out in Central FL. Wife and I decided to make a day out of it and drive to Orlando. Her lease was soon to expire so we decided to hit the MB dealer next door the the mall.

1st Insult: A bunch of people standing around doing nothing except refusing to help customers.

2nd Insult: MSRP quote on a base level AMG GT 4-door.

3rd Insult: Money Factor Marked up to hell. Like literally 7% (something like .00280).

4th Insult: Asshole finance manager who wouldn't come out of his office to greet us. Even when we said we were ready to buy he was "too busy" in a practically empty dealership. And when this gaping asshole does finally show up, he's a complete dick. The kind of person you hope catches a rare cancer. The kind of person you'd throw a cinder block if they were drowning. No redeemable qualities whatsoever.

5th insult: CA didn't have business cards. Nice "kid" but seriously? You're selling $100K cars and you have to hand write your info on a torn off piece of 8 1/2 x 11? GTFOH.

Compare and contrast BMW. Sure you'll encounter this but on the whole, save the outliers, I feel like BMW actually wants to sell cars. Merc wants your first born and a go at your wife just to get a price quote.