BMW is the new king of the hill in the premium brand segment of the US light vehicle market.
In numbers released here Thursday morning, BMW reported a total of 247,907 sales of BMW-branded luxury vehicles. The put the Bavarians 2,715 sales ahead of Mercedes-Benz, which reported 245,192 sales.
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BMW also won the December competition, bringing in 26,834 sales compared to 25,701 for Mercedes.
This is BMW’s first time to lead the upscale segment. Mercedes was the first import brand to take the top spot back in 1999. Lexus has held the position continuously since 2000 but the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan took Lexus out of contention and it had to settle for third.
