Marketing

Industry Overview

A luxury car is any car costing greater than $30,000. Companies such as BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Cadillac, and Lincoln sell high-end vehicles. The luxury car industry accounts for about fifteen percent of the United States car market. Not only do luxury car dealers sell new high-end vehicles, but they also sell used vehicles. Most luxury car dealerships provide excellent customer relations and take pride in their service management and repair services. The luxury car industry can be divided by car type, and by price. There are luxury sedans, SUVs, and sports cars. The luxury car market is dominated mostly by foreign brands. Foreign countries such as Germany and Japan dominate the market. The NAICS code for Luxury Automobile Dealers is 4411.

Largest Producers

        In order, Mercedes Benz, Bavarian Motor Works (BMW), Lexus, and Acura are the four largest producers in the luxury car market based on market shares. As stated before, Germany and Japan dominate this market, and this proves true as Mercedes and BMW are German and both Lexus and Acura are Japanese. In 2012, Mercedes set company records in US sales for eight of the twelve months. Mercedes’ top selling model is the C-Class which has a base price of $35,550. While that doesn’t sound too expensive, that is the cheapest Mercedes, and other models such as the SLS AMG GT start at $199,500. BMW owns 17.1% of the luxury car market. The BMW 3Series is the top selling model; however the cheapest BMW series is the 1Series, where cars start at $31,200. As the number of series increases, so does the car price. For example, the BMW 760 Li is worth $140,200.  The third largest producer is Lexus. Lexus is a Japanese company that is sold in over seventy countries worldwide. Overtime, they have come Japan’s largest-selling make of cars and currently own 15% of the luxury car market. The top selling model is the Lexus RX, which is an SUV. Lexus’ start at $31,850, and range all the way up to $375,000. The...