Small And Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - December 2015 And 2015 Year End

There are, in most cases, two reasons U.S. sales of many high-profile luxury cars posted severe year-over-year sales declines in calendar year 2015.

Consider the Mercedes-Benz E-Class as a prime example. U.S. sales of the E-Class tumbled by a quarter in 2015, falling by nearly 17,000 units to a sub-50K total since 2009, when U.S. auto sales were falling fast in the midst of a recession. 

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U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings By Model - 2015 Year End
U.S. Car Sales Rankings By Model - 2015 Year End

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Reason #1 for the decline: the current E-Class has aged; consumers typically turn in large numbers to more recently redesigned models than to older models. 

Reason #2: Legions of potential E-Class buyers aren't potential E-Class buyers after all. At Mercedes-Benz, as the M-Class transitioned into the GLE-Class, combined sales of this alleged E-Class "equivalent" jumped 14% to 53,213 units in 2015. Not since 2008 has the M-Class even come close – and it didn't, not quite – to catching the E-Class. But the tide has turned.

Why do we pay such attention to the E-Class? It's a hugely popular luxury car, even now; Mercedes-Benz has finally revealed a new E-Class; and the E-Class is emblematic of a trend across the sector.

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There were dramatic exceptions to the trend in 2015, of course. At the lower end, the Audi A3 is more popular than ever. Mercedes-Benz's own new C-Class surged in 2015. Lower-volume nameplates like the Infiniti Q70, Lexus GS, and Volvo S80 managed measurable increases in 2015, as well.

But the E-Class, like America's top-selling premium brand car from BMW, the 3-Series, is simply not selling nearly as well now as it once did. In the case of the E-Class, an all-new model may not change that fact in a market that's increasingly less interested in conventional sedans.

You can click any model name in the tables below to find historical monthly and yearly U.S. auto sales data. You can also select a make and model at GCBC's Sales Stats page. These tables are now sortable, so you can rank luxury brand cars any which way you like. Suggestions on how GCBC should break down segments can be passed on through the Contact page.

Click Column Headers To Sort • January 2016 • November 2015 • December 2014

Small/Entry  Luxury Car	December 2015	December 2014	% Change	2015	2014	% Change
Acura ILX *	1960	1730	13.3%	18,531	17,854	3.8%
Acura TLX	3508	3834	-8.5%	47,080	19,127	146%
Acura TSX	---	17	-100%	35	6287	-99.4%
Audi A3	3252	2690	20.9%	35,984	22,250	61.7%
Audi A4  ^	3426	3599	-4.8%	31,831	38,679	-17.7%
Audi A5 *	1000	1292	-22.6%	12,934	16,620	-22.2%
BMW 2-Series (& 1-Series) *^	2143	724	196%	13,020	7345	77.3%
BMW 3-Series	5262	13,339	-60.6%	94,527	100,970	-6.2%
BMW 4-Series	5601	5859	-4.4%	46,082	41,442	11.2%
BMW i3	1422	1013	40.4%	11,024	6092	81.0%
Cadillac ATS	3451	2465	40.0%	26,873	29,890	-10.1%
Infiniti Q40	31	1184	-97.4%	8605	15,590	-44.8%
Infiniti Q50	4678	3855	21.3%	43,874	36,899	18.9%
Infiniti Q60 *	290	658	-55.9%	3949	7740	-49.0%
Lexus CT200h	1464	1608	-9.0%	14,657	17,673	-17.1%
Lexus IS	5028	5939	-15.3%	46,430	51,358	-9.6%
Lexus RC	1711	1042	64.2%	14,784	1922	669%
Mercedes-Benz B-Class *	97	326	-70.2%	1906	776	146%
Mercedes-Benz C-Class	7023	8224	-14.6%	86,080	75,065	14.7%
Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class	1912	2664	-28.2%	29,643	27,365	8.3%
Volvo C30	---	---	---	---	66	-100%
Volvo S60	1486	1866	-20.4%	16,706	20,457	-18.3%
Volvo S60 Cross Country	104	---	---	287	---	---
Volvo V60	296	357	-17.1%	4362	4990	-12.6%
Volvo V60 Cross Country	202	---	---	2769	---	---
---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Total	55,347	64,285	-13.9%	611,973	566,457	8.0%

Midsize Luxury Car	December 2015	December 2014	% Change	2015	2014	% Change
Acura RLX	159	233	-31.8%	2195	3413	-35.7%
Acura TL	---	76	-100%	88	10,616	-99.2%
Audi A6	2456	2945	-16.6%	22,850	23,941	-4.6%
Audi A7 *	841	524	60.5%	7721	8133	-5.1%
BMW 5-Series	2985	5517	-45.9%	44,162	52,704	-16.2%
Cadillac CTS	2441	2652	-8.0%	19,485	31,115	-37.4%
Cadillac XTS	3070	2276	34.9%	23,112	24,335	-5.0%
Hyundai Equus	201	343	-41.4%	2332	3415	-31.7%
Infiniti Q70	786	656	19.8%	8449	5034	67.8%
Jaguar XF	559	772	-27.6%	5933	5880	0.9%
Kia K900	162	93	74.2%	2524	1330	89.8%
Lexus ES	7856	7782	1.0%	64,969	72,508	-10.4%
Lexus GS	3423	2745	24.7%	23,117	22,198	4.1%
Lincoln MKS	471	927	-49.2%	6877	8160	-15.7%
Lincoln MKZ	3207	2636	21.7%	30,901	34,009	-9.1%
Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class *	581	575	1.0%	6152	6981	-11.9%
Mercedes-Benz E-Class	4999	5119	-2.3%	49,736	66,401	-25.1%
Mercedes-Benz R-Class	---	1	-100%	4	8	-50.0%
Volvo S80	176	79	123%	1887	1753	7.6%
Volvo XC70 *	432	470	-8.1%	5118	5093	0.5%
---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Total	34,805	36,421	-4.4%	327,612	387,027	-15.3%

Source: Automakers & ANDC
* vehicle also displayed in another GCBC segment breakdown
^ BMW USA, previously combined sales figures of the 3-Series and 4-Series but recently began splitting the pair. 2-Series figures continue to take old 1-Series sales into account.
^ A4 includes Allroad, without which A4 sales were down 1% to 3172 in December; down 15% to 29,013 in 2015.
GCBC isn't here to break down segments, an impossible task for any group, but to display sales data for the sake of comparison. The more ways sales data can be displayed, the better. This explains why you'll see the Acura ILX here but also with mainstream cars like the Buick Verano, too, and the Audi A5 is also displayed with coupes and convertibles... because readers have wanted it both ways. Hyundai USA, not GoodCarBadCar, chooses to combine sales figures for the Genesis sedan and Genesis Coupe, forcing us to include the Genesis with volume-brand cars on pricing grounds before we even get to the "brand status" issue. The K900, Equus, and XTS are here not because of their size but because of their price points, their lack of direct comparability with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. You can always find the sales results for EVERY vehicle and form your own competitive sets by using the All Vehicle Rankings posts.

RECOMMENDED READING
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - January 2016
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - November 2015 YTD
Small & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - December 2014 & Year End
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - December 2015
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - December 2015 & Year End
Large Luxury Car Sales In America - December 2015 & Year End