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2010 US luxury brand sales monthly recap – January

luxury battle

1. Lexus: 15,517
2. MB: 15,158
3. BMW: 13,163

Lexus remained strong among the luxury brands even under the massive Toyota recall that’s currently going on and MB is a very close second. As for BMW… after the “supposed-to-take-over-as-number-one” year in 2009, the question now is where is it headed with all the niche products like the X6M, X5M and the 5-series GT.

Few interesting facts worth to point out…

1. The HS sales still isn’t as well as Lexus had predicted, maybe some “spice” is missing for this car?

2. The LS sales went … Continue Reading

Is the 3-series Falling?

It is the common knowledge within the automotive industry as well as the auto enthusiast community that the 3-series is getting softer with each generation. Thus there are critics from the auto publications and the so-called “purists” claiming that it has lost the “soul” (whatever that is…).

Personally I don’t think the 3er is “falling” per se, it is just that the competitors are getting better so it really doesn’t stand out that much anymore compare to say, 10 years ago.

Let’s see who were 3er’s competitors back in 1999:

  • Audi A4 (the closest one in my opinion)
  • MB C-class (luxury yes, handling… didn’t … Continue Reading

I Don’t Get Audi

audi-wtf

Went to the Audi performance driving event several months ago so I had an opportunity to drive the A4 3.2 Quattro on the infield trackĀ at California Speedway in Fontana as well as its competitors (328xi, IS250 AWD and C300 4Matic). Overall I have to say that I am not impressed by the new A4 at all.

The interior material quality is no longer class leading, both the Lexus and Bimmer have better quality materials. Fit and finish is still top notch but which one isn’t in this segment? Okay, maybe not so much for the Infiniti…
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