Lux-taposition: 2010 Premium-Brand Finish Means 2011 Up for Grabs

Lux-taposition: 2010 Premium-Brand Finish Means 2011 Up for Grabs

In one of the luxury market's closest finishes in years, fewer than 10,000 sales was the difference between the industry's top luxury player in 2010 - still Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus - and the second- and third-place finishers, German standard-bearers Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

That suggests the luxury sales crown is up for grabs in 2011.

Despite highly-touted gains for its SRX midsize crossover, General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac premium-vehicle unit finished a distant fourth, ringing up 146,925 sales, although the total represented a meaty 34.7-percent gain from Cadillac's total of just 109,092 sales in all of 2009.

And although the Volkswagen Group's Audi of America Inc. swelled to its first-ever 6-figure U.S. sales year in 2010, selling 101,629 vehicles, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s Infiniti luxury division quietly managed to stay ahead of the increasingly assertive Audi by selling 103,411 vehicles in the U.S. last year.

Lexus Stays On Top

For Lexus, its 229,329 deliveries in 2010 was enough to retain its position as the U.S. market's best-selling luxury brand - an honor that once was coveted and often used in advertising and other promotions but in the recession years has become less of a bragging point.

Lexus' total represented a 7-percent gain over 2009, a year in which the luxury market was hammered by recessionary fears and the broad auto industry's coinciding downturn. The brand's gainers were led by the HS hybrid, up 10.2 percent, although the fuel-efficient model's volume of 10,663 hardly was breathtaking. The lineup was led, as usual, by the ES entry-level sedan, which moved 48,652 units in 2010, a 1-percent gain.

But Lexus' GS midsizer was off by 4.4 percent for the year, the IS sport sedan/convertible line was down by 9.8 percent and the SC roadster was nearly invisible with just 328 sales for the year, a 54.1-percent slide.

For both Mercedes and BMW, 2010 mostly was a year of business-as-usual, as both German brands continue to expand their lineups into various niches but make the bulk of their sales in the mainstream sedan and crossover segments.

Mercedes-Benz USA's total sales of 225,007 in 2010 was a healthy climb of 18 percent, although some of the boost came from inclusion of the Sprinter commercial van; sales only for Mercedes passenger-vehicle models improved by 13.6 percent compared with 2009.

At BMW of North America LLC, total 2010 U.S. sales of 220,113 represented a 12 percent gain, while sales at the company's Mini small-car brand improved by 0.9 percent to 45,644 cars.

Audi Coming Strong - Relatively

Volkswagen's Audi unit has been appreciably gaining on its German, Japanese and American competition in the past two years, and while Audi for the first time surpassed the 100,000-sales mark in the U.S. for the first time in 2010 - particularly notable considering the market's generally difficult climate - its 22.9-percent gain was exceeded by Cadillac and Nissan's Infiniti, where sales improved by 27.5 percent.

American Honda's Acura premium unit sprung to 133,606 sales in 2010 - a 27.2-percent gain after a particularly dismal 2009 when the division turned just 105,723 sales, an almost 27-percent slide from the prior year.

Ironically for the brand that somewhat built its reputation on the values of light and sensibly-sized nimble-handling cars, the bulky MDX crossover has shouldered in to become Acura's best-selling model. Sales for the MDX were up 52.4 percent in 2010 to 47,210, a gain partially derived from the fact MDX sales had been ravaged in the industry's disastrous 2009.

And the midsize TL rose up to pass the entry-level TSX as Acura's second-best selling model; the TSX typically is Acura's most-popular sedan, but its latest redesign has not been particularly well-received. Acura also sold 3,259 copies of the ZDX in the first full year of availability for the controversially styled crossover-wagon.

Cadillac, which made claim to be the year's fastest-growing luxury brand, forged a 17.6-percent gain for the CTS entry sedan (and new coupe), but thanks to a ponderous 152.5-percent rocketing for the SRX nameplate, the new crossover become Cadillac's best-selling model for the year with 51,094 sales compared with the CTS' 46,656.The Escalade and pickup-like Escalade EXT declined in 2010, although the long-length Escalade ESV improved by 31.7 percent to 8,674 sales.

The fullsize, front-drive DTS and the midsize STS sedan are due to be replaced in 2012 by a single new model, and both cars have faded to blips on the sales chart. In 2010, the DTS sold a total of just 18,640 units, while full-year sales for the STS amounted to a paltry 4,473.

And Cadillac's only remaining domestic-car rival, Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln premium-vehicle division, sold 85,828 vehicles in 2010, a 3.6-percent gain compared with 2009.

With such a scant number of vehicles separating the luxury market's top three players, factors such as relatively minor corrections in the market, the cadence of new-model launches and even the trajectory of gasoline prices could reposition any - or all.

Bill Visnic is senior editor for Edmunds AutoObserver.com

Photos by Manufacturers

1 - Lexus LS

2 - Audi A8

Bill Visnic:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter