Luxury Car Market Hits Six-Year High

Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class/Image Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

Almost 400,000 new luxury vehicles were sold during the first quarter of 2013. This is the highest sales volume of luxury vehicles since 2007, Kelley Blue Book announced Thursday. In its New-Car Market Report, KBB.com says the average price luxury buyers paid for their new vehicle also increased.
Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst, automotive insights for Kelley Blue Book, says, “The luxury crossover segment improved 26.4 percent in the first quarter, thanks to new models such as the Infiniti JX and BMW X1. In addition, the recently redesigned Acura RDX helped as sales more than tripled from last year in March.”
The report also showed that Cadillac had significant gains in the first quarter. The brand had a 38-percent gain in sales over the previous year, which Kelley Blue Book attributes to the new Cadillac ATS and XTS. Cadillac says in a statement that both luxury vehicles posted their best sales month in March.
Even though Cadillac showed the largest increase in the luxury market, Mercedes-Benz still holds the largest portion of the market and had its largest first quarter sales thus far. Kelley Blue Book predicts that Mercedes-Benz has a good chance of keeping its lead because of its impending CLA-Class that will start at less than $30,000, as well as the redesigned E-Class.
According to KBB.com’s report, luxury car shoppers are paying more for a new vehicle. In March, they paid an average of $47,791, compared with $46,629 the same time a year ago. Kelley Blue Books says, “New and improved introductions combined with healthy demand have allowed manufacturers to increase both sales and prices.” All the positive growth in the luxury vehicle market means that luxury shoppers looking for a good deal may not find one.