BMW Group vehicle sales this December were down 1.3% when compared to last December. Total year sales for 2005 were up a mere 3.7%.

Sales of the X Series were down 11.4% when compared to December, 2004 while car sales were up 9.3% as the 5 and 7 Series had a good month.

Sales of the BMW brand were up 3.9% when compared to last December.

In December Mercedes-Benz outsold BMW with sales of 31,192 units which represent a 17.2% increase from last December when only 26,607 units were sold. 2005 sales for MB were up 1.2% for the year. MB sales would have been much lower save for introduction of the 2006 M Class in April and total yearly sales of the SLK. Sales of the M Class were up 36.1% when compared to 2004 while yearly sales of the SLK were up 53.2%.

Last month I added a complete report for Lexus as I believe that the introduction of the new IS250 and IS350 models is going to give the BMW 3 Series a real challenge in the coming months. Note that December sales of the Lexus IS250 and IS350 totaled 4,447 units while the new E90 3 Series sedans totaled 8,884 units. I’m betting that this sales gap will close in each of the next few months. In any event it will be fun to watch.

Please visit my website for the complete Lexus and Mercedes-Benz sales reports.

Please note that I only report the United States sales data.