More Luxury Car Shoppers Look at BMW Than Other Brands

BMW has maintained its slim lead over the luxury automaker field in Kelley Blue Book’s latest Brand Watch Report. The biggest news out of the report might be just how stable America’s luxury car market is. Automakers improve their products constantly, jockeying for position, but the positions change little.

Our Brand Watch Report is a consumer perception survey that also weaves in shopping behavior to determine how a brand or model stacks up with its segment competitors on a dozen factors key to a consumer’s buying decision. We publish separate reports for the non-luxury and luxury car markets.

The top five luxury automakers held their positions in the first quarter of 2023. There was shuffling in lower positions as five automakers tied for tenth.

Tesla continues to exist in its own world outside the competition. The company cut prices drastically during the quarter, feeding a sales surge. But it did nothing to change the number of shoppers considering a Tesla, which remained steady at 9%.

That may be because researching a car and buying one are different steps. Other studies have shown that most car shoppers cross-shop several brands, but Tesla buyers generally don’t.

The Top 10 Most-Considered Brands

Luxury Shoppers Are SUV Shoppers

Most American car shoppers buy SUVs. That truth is even more stark in the luxury classes, where there are no pickup trucks. Fully 73% of shoppers looked at a sport utility last quarter. That’s five percentage points higher than a year ago.

Plenty of shoppers, however, consider both cars and SUVs before deciding. Luxury cars got a look from 45% of browsers. That’s six percentage points lower.

Luxury cars have seen an overabundance of supply even throughout the chip shortage. Week after week, they have among the highest inventories of any vehicle segment. Interest in them is waning, and incentives may be required to move bloated stocks.

The Top 10 Most-Considered Models: