BMW won back the top luxury sales spot from Lexus in the third quarter of 2025, selling 96,886 vehicles to beat the Japanese automaker by a tight margin of 5,277 units. Lexus made itself the sales king in Q2 of this year, but it seems that victory was rather short-lived. In any case, both automakers are expected to set sales records this year.
Part of BMW’s strategy right now is bringing in 2026 model year vehicles early. According to Edmunds data, 2026 MY vehicles made up 51% of BMW Q3 sales and just 4.8% of Lexus’. However, Lexus dealers were able to turn inventory faster in the quarter. BMW’s took an average of 46 days to sell, whereas the average Lexus was gone in 22 days. From Automotive News:
BMW’s third-quarter sales surged 25 percent from a year earlier, when the brand was hampered by a significant recall and stop-sale for faulty brake modules.
Strong demand for BMW’s plug-in hybrids and crossovers powered sales in the quarter. Plug-in hybrid deliveries rose 37 percent from last year, offsetting a 16 percent slide in EV sales.
Shaun Bugbee, executive vice president of operations for BMW of North America, attributed the weaker EV sales to limited supply.
BMW took a “measured reduction” in EV production in May and June, when there was uncertainty about tariffs, customer demand and the federal tax credit, Bugbee said.
The brand’s EV sales in September increased more than 30 percent as buyers rushed to dealerships before the federal subsidy expired at month’s end.
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Lexus’ third-quarter sales reached 91,609, up 13 percent from last year.
Shawn Domeracki, Lexus’ vice president of sales and dealer development, said the brand’s U.S. sales were on track to achieve a record of about 355,000 for the year.
He credited two models for driving the pace: the redesigned GX midsize SUV and the three-row TX large crossover. Through nine months, GX sales were up 35 percent this year, at 28,244, while TX volume increased 86 percent to 39,546.
Coming in third was Mercedes-Benz. In the quarter, sales actually fell 13% to about 73,500 passenger vehicles. The automaker attributed the decline to higher sales earlier in the year. There may be something to that. Through the third quarter, retail sales were up 6% to about 223,800 vehicles — putting MB on track to surpass last year’s rough total of 302,000 vehicles.
Overall, the U.S. luxury segment grew 4.5% in the third quarter, which is actually slightly less than the 5.6% the rest of the market grew. Rounding out the top five when it comes to luxury sales were Audi (46,758 vehicles) and Cadillac (46,525 vehicles — up 25% year-over-year).
