BMW snagged the top spot last month, but Lexus and Mercedes are still battling for the top spot in year-to-date luxury brand sales. Lincoln and Mercury are running at less than half the rate of Buick and Cadillac, while Saab’s year-to-date number is nearly on par with its next-nearest rival Jaguar’s monthly number. Infiniti pulled ahead of Audi in YTD and monthly sales in July, as both brands prepare to overtake the canceled Mercury brand in the YTD sales race, and start chasing Acura. It continues to be a rowdy year for the luxury brands…

Ford was the best-selling brand in America over the first half of 2010, outselling second-place Chevrolet by over 70k units. Sadly, we don’t have the fleet sales breakdown for this data, because both Ford and Chevy have been dogged by indicators of heavy fleet-sales reliance all year. And volume means very little if it’s hurting resale and eroding a brand. Speaking of brand erosion, did you know that the zombie brand Saturn sold better (6,480 units) since January than Jaguar or Saab? With Hyundai-Kia headed for a combined million-sales year, there’s a new pack forming behind the Korean brands, composed of Subaru, VW and Mazda. Neither true mass-market brands nor premium players, these three brands will be interesting to watch over the next several years.

VW CEO  Martin Winterkorn is a superstitious man. He doesn’t want to add a 13^th brand to his (or rather Piech’s) large collection. (Coincidentally, 12 is the number of Piech’s children. More or less. Nobody is quite sure,) “There are some who knock on our door. Some really want to come under our roof as they see we’re on a good path strategically. But we are satisfied with the current line-up,” Winterkorn said to Wirtschaftswoche.  Specifically questioned about Volvo or (gasp) Daimler, Winterkorn answered: „There are many who would like to snuggle in VW’s cozy bed. Thank you, not interested.”  Instead, he’s re-thinking the line-up of his new acquisitions:  “I could imagine a smaller Cayenne derivative. Or a Porsche below the Boxster. This is under discussion.”
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