Mercedes-Benz sails ahead

MERCEDES-BENZ has continued its unprecedented sales run in Australia by topping four segments and knocking Honda out of the top 10 best-selling brands in October.

The German luxury car-maker finished October with 3150 sales, up a whopping 39.3 per cent over the same month in October last year when it shifted 2261 units.

Its performance was enough to keep Jeep and Honda out of the top 10 for the month with their respective hauls of 2628 and 2626 units.

The mainstream Japanese brand is still in the top 10 year to date with 26,259 sales, but Mercedes is snapping at its heels with 25,837 units. If Honda and Benz sell numbers similar to their October results in the last two months of 2014, the German marque could push Honda out of the top 10 sales for the year.

In passenger car sales alone, not including commercials or SUVs, Benz's haul of 2248 units eclipses that of mainstream brand Ford's passenger sales of 2062 units last month.

While Mercedes' still relatively new crop of compact offerings, including the A- and B-Class hatches, CLA-Class four-door sedan and GLA-Class crossover, have clearly helped boost the marque in the past 18 months, some of its more established nameplates are also having an impact.

The E-Class sedan and Estate range came out on top in the premium large car segment with 135 sales last month, almost doubling BMW's haul for the 5 Series (75) and Jaguar's XF (69).

Year to date, the E-Class is well ahead of the pack with 1327 sales – up 19.8 per cent over the same period last year – keeping it well ahead of the 5 Series (751) and the XF (715) as well as the Audi A6 (510).

But it was the C-Class that came out fighting, with 862 sales – most likely a combination of the new-generation W205 model and runout stock of the superseded version – making it not only the top selling mid-sizer over $60,000, but also the second best-selling mid-sizer overall next to the locally built Toyota Camry (1908).

Interestingly, Mercedes also managed to snag fourth place in the overall mid-size segment with its swoopy compact CLA grabbing 371 sales behind the third placed Mazda6 which was just ahead on 387 units.

In the high-end luxury limo category, Benz topped the charts with its resurgent S-Class outshining all comers with 37 sales, bringing its year-to-date total to 293 units. Maserati's total of 30 units was close, but the Italian brand does not separate out sales of its large Quattroporte and mid-size Ghibli models so its total is combined.

The newest Benz nameplate is also having an impact, with the GLA crossover leading its premium compact SUV segment last month with 200 sales, ahead of the Audi Q3 – which leads the segment year to date on 2271 sales – and Lexus' latest offering, the NX on 174 sales.

Benz is down in some segments, with the ML-Class SUV (280) being beaten by BMW's popular X5 (366) last month as well as year to date where the BMW is easily segment leader on 3488 sales compared with 2570.

BMW also had the top-selling sportscar over $80,000 last month with its 4 Series coupe and convertible clocking up 186 sales, helping increase its year to date dominance with 1838 units placing it ahead of second placed Mercedes' soon to be replaced C-Class Coupe on 1562 units.

The other German luxury marque, Audi, also had a stellar October, racking up 1613 sales in October to bring its year to date total to 16,014 units which eclipses its total January to December 2013 haul of 16,009.

Audi's A3 range continued its impressive run with 461 sales in October, outselling the Mercedes A-Class and BMW 1 Series but still trailing the Benz in year to date sales by 254 units.

The Q5 SUV held onto its title as the top-selling premium SUV in the country with 347 sales, adding to its year to date haul of 2807, 366 units ahead of the second placed BMW X3.