Sales in the Premium Mid-sized segment fell by 20 percent in the second quarter, exactly the same rate of decline as in Q1 2016. Once again, this is the worst performance from among all the Premium segments, and the second-worst performance from among all segments – only Alternative Power did worse, with sales falling by 21 percent. While things may yet pick up a bit now that the new Audi A4 and Jaguar XE are on sale, 2016 is turning out to be a bad year for the segment.
Highlights in first half of 2016
- Every model experienced a fall in sales compared to the first half of 2015…
- …with the exception of the new-to-market Jaguar XE, whose sales started off slowly, giving the model a distant last place, with less than a sixth of the sales of the second-to-last model, the aging Volvo S60/V60
- Some of the biggest falls in sales were recorded by the segment leader, BMW 3-series and 4-series (sales down 27 percent, halving its advantage over the second-placed Mercedes-Benz C-class) and the relatively new Infiniti Q50 (sales down 31 percent, dropping it to fourth, behind the older Lexus IS/RC)
- Given the performance of the segment overall, the relative winners were the new Audi A4 and Lincoln MKZ, whose sales fell only by 5 and 4 percent, respectively, and promoting the former to fifth spot, at the expense of Acura TLX
Note: Clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off