Luxury car sales spike in 2013

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Australian car makers may be on the brink but there is an ongoing boom in luxury cars.

In 2013 Australians snapped up more luxury cars than ever before, with more youth-focused small cars and compact SUVs leading the sales charge.

According to the latest sales figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries this week 10 sports and luxury brands enjoyed growth of between 8.2 per cent and 257 per cent in 2013.

While the overall market was up just 2.2 per cent brands including Porsche, Jaguar, BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz comfortably out-performed that with double digit growth.
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And the trend has been ongoing, with the dominant German brands – Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW – growing 333 per cent, 58 per cent and 38 per cent respectively in a decade.

Even sports car brands Porsche and Ferrari have enjoyed sales growth over the decade of 51 per cent and 54 per cent.

Of the major luxury brands only Rolls-Royce (down 27.3 per cent), Volvo (down 3.7 per cent) and Lexus (up 1.2 per cent) didn’t exceed the market’s growth.

Nissan’s Infiniti brand was the biggest percentage winner in 2013 with a 258 per cent increase compared with 2012. But that is tempered by the fact the brand was only reintroduced here part-way through 2012, so it was starting from a low base and only sold 304 cars.

The boom in prestige cars has been driven by three key factors.

Firstly, the addition of a new range of smaller, more affordable models such as the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (with 3218 sales in 2013 it accounted for 14 per cent of Benz’s luxury sales and outsold entire brands such as Citroen, Chrysler and SsangYong), which still has buyers queuing to own one.

Secondly, the ongoing boom in SUV sales has spread to the luxury brands, which are now offering more models (Audi’s compact Q3 SUV was up 96 per cent).

Thirdly, car makers have improved value by adding more equipment and, in many cases, slashing prices in response to the strong Australian dollar.

Sports cars enjoyed similar sales growth to luxury small cars and SUVs with Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati all enjoying sales spikes.

Porsche enjoyed its best year ever thanks to strong sales of its new Cayman and repriced Boxster and 911 models, which in some cases were cut by more than $36,000.

Audi had a record year for its performance models with over 1100 S, RS and R8 examples sold and Mercedes sold a record 1649 AMG performance cars, which accounted for seven per cent of its total vehicle sales.

Anna Burgdorf, Audi’s general manager of corporate communications, admits that the relatively small Australian market, combined with so many brands, has made life better for consumers looking for a luxury car.

“Acknowledging it is such a competitive market is important,” Burgdorf says. “There is a pressure to decrease prices and increase value. Luxury brands are recognizing they need to off the best deal possible.”

The increased number of small luxury cars have made prestige brands more affordable than ever before. For example, Audi’s range begins at $26,500 (plus on-road and dealer costs) for the A1 1.2 TFSI hatch, BMW’s cheapest car is the $35,600 116i hatch and Mercedes-Benz offers the A180 hatch for $35,600.

But Professor Pascale Quester, a marketing expert from the University of Adelaide, cautioned that the popularity of luxury cars could detract from their appeal to some buyers.

"There is an element of status about them," Quester said. "Brand's are defined by their commonality. The more you see of them the less desirable they become. So if there are too many BMWs and Mercedes cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris become the symbols of status."

The leading brands aren’t slowing down in the pursuit of more sales growth in 2014 with a range of new models.

Click here for our comprehensive list of new cars for 2014.



Fastest growing luxury brands: 2013 versus 2012

1. Infiniti +257.6%

2. Bentley +86.2%

3. Jaguar +40.6%

4. Porsche +38.7%

5. Mercedes-Benz +23.0%

6. Lamborghini +14.6%

7. McLaren +13.0%

8. BMW +11.5%

9. Audi +10.1%

10. Ferrari +8.2%

Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries

http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...108-30gzp.html

I have seen a fair amount of the new A Class around and suprisingly a lot of Porsche 991 (911 and Boxsters).

I guess people have a little extra $$ and therefore decide to spoil themselves a little. I would too....set aside one gun metal grey GT3 for me Porsche