THE EUROPEANS
Volkswagen Group
The Volkswagen group managed to grow its sales by 5 percent over March, with contributions from VW, Audi, and even Bentley. At VW, the formerly strong-running CC and the Jetta fell back, while the New Beetle and the Routan enjoyed an incentive-fueled burst. Audi garnered its biggest gains from the Q5.
The good:
Volkswagen Routan +153%
Volkswagen New Beetle +121%
Volkswagen Eos +21%
Audi Q5 +11%
The bad:
Volkswagen Jetta -19%
Volkswagen CC -30%
BMW Group
At the BMW group, the bookend brands--Mini and Rolls-Royce--were essentially (Mini) or exactly (Rolls-Royce) unchanged from the prior month. Unfortunately, the BMW brand was down, mostly on the weakness of its bread-and-butter 3-series.
The good:
6-series +68%
X6 +41%
The bad:
3-series -29%
Daimler-Benz
The good news for Daimler in April was that Maybach was able to sell 8 cars again, the same as it did in March. Neither Smart nor Mercedes-Benz was able to equal its March sales, but they weren't that bad, either. Low gas prices likely put a damper on Smart. Mercedes was troubled by lower volumes for its core C-class and for the new GLK.
The good:
CL-class +79%
SL-class +63%
S-class +59%
The bad:
R-class -46%
GLK -29%
C-class -15%
Top 5 sellers (and change from prior month)
Honda Accord 29,212 (+29%)
Ford F-series 28,757 (-12%)
Chevy Silverado 26,437 (+12%)
Honda Civic 26,252 (+27%)
Toyota Camry 25,324 (-2%)