What does it mean?
If you’ve noticed a lot more luxury vehicles on roads in the US, you’re not just imagining things. According to Kelley Blue Book, luxury car sales are booming, driving up the average price of new vehicles overall. It seems a lot of people are springing for something that’s more prestigious and feature rich.
Check out the Ferrari that fell down an elevator shaft here.
Kelley Blue Book noted that luxury vehicle sales hit a record share of the market at 19.6%. In December 2022 they accounted for 18.6% of all new car sales. This means your BMW, Infiniti, etc. isn’t so special anymore as plenty of them are being snatched up by friends, neighbors, family members, coworkers, and more.
For January, the luxury car brand leaders when it came to buyers paying over sticker price in January were Mercedes-Benz and Lexus. That indicates demand for those two are quite strong. Meanwhile, the luxury brands that saw buyers paying 1% or more below sticker price included Volvo, Audi, Lincoln, BMW, and Infiniti. It’s surprising to see two German brands included in that group, showing times might be changing.
During the pandemic, just about every luxury brand saw an increase in sales, particularly high-end luxury and exotic vehicles from the likes of Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Rolls-Royce. Many attributed the bump to the luxury segment as FOMO or fear of missing out.
With the possibility of death on plenty of people’s minds, they decided to finally check off the bucket list item and get that dream car. That might sound ridiculous to anyone who’s always realized death can be a heartbeat away, but this was the reaction of a sizable portion of the world.
Another theory was that with governments handing out covid relief funds like candy, people suddenly had more cash than ever. Like a kid in a candy shop, they rushed out and bought luxury vehicles which previously were far out of their reach.
The fact that luxury sales are still going strong is curious because covid money has run out in the US and more people are coming to realize they’re probably not going to suddenly die of covid. Exactly what’s driving this surge in luxury vehicles is a topic we hope to see more discussion about.
Source: Cox Automotive
Images via BMW, Lexus
