BMW keeps luxury lead as German brands boost discounts

BMW outsold Mercedes-Benz and other luxury auto makes in May in the U.S. to widen its lead for the year as the European automakers increased discounts.

BMW's U.S. deliveries, boosted by sales of sport-utility vehicles and the new 5-Series sedan, rose 16 percent from a year earlier to 20,651, BMW AG said today in a statement. Deliveries for the first five months of the year rose 13 percent to 92,068 vehicles, to lead Mercedes' 90,274 sales and the 77,237 deliveries by Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus.

"BMW and Mercedes-Benz clearly will be on a photo finish for the rest of the year," Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com in Santa Monica, Calif., said in a telephone interview. "Lexus, for the first time in many years, is clearly out of the running for the top spot."

Mercedes' discounts rose by 27 percent per vehicle in May and BMW increased its incentives by 6.7 percent, while discounts on Lexus models fell 51 percent, according to Truecar.

Lexus has been the top-selling luxury auto brand in the U.S. on an annual basis for the past 11 years. Its lead over BMW narrowed to 9,216 last year, less than half the 19,473 gap in 2009. Mercedes finished in third place last year. Lexus sales last month tumbled 45 percent to 12,305, the company said in a statement.

"It would appear Lexus has suffered from a lack of supply," Jim O'Donnell, head of BMW's U.S. sales operations, said in an interview. "That's unfortunate, but it's one of those things."

U.S. sales of BMW's 5-Series models rose 84 percent last month when X3 SUV deliveries more than tripled to 2,350, the company said. U.S. dealers sold 18,886 Mercedes-Benz cars and SUVs last month, 1.8 percent more than a year earlier, Mercedes' parent Daimler AG said in a statement. The results exclude Daimler's Sprinter vans and Smart cars and BMW's Mini brand, which aren't luxury vehicles