Prestige importers battle for sales supremacy

BMW is the leading prestige importer in the country, according to VFACTS for April. But if the battle for sales victory appears to be won by the Bavarian brand with the year just four months old, think again.

In year to date figures, BMW has sold 5633 units -- not counting those cars sold as MINIs. Mercedes-Benz, without its commercial vehicle tally, has sold 5326 passenger cars and SUVs for the same period; barely 300 vehicles behind BMW. Still some way back, but within striking distance is Audi, on 4774.

The competition between these three brands is vicious, in a way that makes the rivalry between Ford and Holden or Honda and Mazda seem very genteel by comparison.

Can Mercedes-Benz catch and overtake BMW before the end of the year? In passenger and commercial vehicles, Benz did beat BMW for April, as well as the previous month too, but the longer term prospect over the course of the year is unclear. The Carsales Network asked David McCarthy, Benz's Senior Manager Corporate Communications, for his prognosis.

"There's three words: product, product, product. C-Class, no problem. The CGI engines are going very, very well. The pricing that we've got the car at is really appealing to customers. E-Class the same... S-Class... It's X5 [that's the challenge for Benz to overcome].

"We don't have an X3 competitor, we don't have an X1 competitor, although I would say that B-Class is doing very well. There's no doubt that there's a lot of people looking at that car that have looked at X1s and Q5s. Okay, we don't get all of them, but it's the interior flexibility and high-seating position that are a couple of things people want.

"And the B-Class, starting at 37 grand, is pretty good value; and it looks good. It's got nice wheels on it and it's well equipped...

"Catch them by the end of the year? It's only April. We'd like to, but there again, you've got the '5 GT'. If that's a hundred units, that's another hundred units we need to sell.

"Our C-Class Estate is doing really well, we're going to do 600 of those this year. That's not 100 or 150 a month like X1, X3, that sort of thing -- but that's volume we've never done in Estates. They've got their strategy, we've got ours. Absence of GLK is not ideal."

Yet arguably, it's the absence of a compact prestige SUV that has served to boost sales of the C-Class Estate, McCarthy implies. Sales of Audi's A4 Avant have evaporated since the launch of the Q5 and BMW's 3 Series Touring don't sell in anything like the numbers of the X3, according to McCarthy. That strongly supports the argument that people who buy compact prestige SUVs such as the X3 and the Q5 just want a wagon -- and if it's a wagon that happens to offer high-driving position and marginal offroad ability, that's icing on the cake. But perhaps it's no more than the icing, it's not imperative.

BMW may be hampered by supply constraints and a few issues, such as an alleged lack of a four-cylinder diesel for the (F10 generation) 5 Series before the end of the year. Conservative forward ordering for the 5 Series Gran Turismo and the X1 may place a further obstacle in the way, but Benz on the other hand, is a year or more away from a new M-Class and the X5 is making hay while the sun shines -- something like 400 units ahead of the Benz SUV for the year to date.

So it's shaping up to be an interesting contest over the next eight months.

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