BMW pushes ahead of luxury rivals

BMW grabbed a 4,808-vehicle lead over Lexus in the first nine months, putting the German marque on track to claim the U.S. luxury sales crown for a third consecutive year.

In the latest quarter, BMW sold 75,619 vehicles, up 8.7 percent. Light trucks accounted for 60 percent of BMW's quarterly sales.

BMW also extended its lead over rival Mercedes-Benz for the year, with a nearly 28,000-vehicle advantage as of the end of September.

But even amid tightening inventories around the industry, total U.S. luxury sales inched 0.9 percent higher to 514,110 cars and light trucks in the third quarter, compared with a 13 percent decline for the broader industry.

For the nine-month period, luxury sales rose 26 percent.

Mercedes continues to lose ground as the automaker grapples with production shortfalls caused by tight semiconductor supplies. It had been the luxury segment leader after the first quarter but was topped by BMW in the second quarter.

As its third-quarter U.S. deliveries tumbled 21 percent to 55,130, Mercedes stands in third place, behind BMW and Lexus.

Inventory is at an all-time low, said Jeff Aiosa, owner of Mercedes-Benz of New London in Connecticut. The dealer said he has roughly a 10-day supply.

"We are in the eye of the storm," Aiosa said.

"Vehicle carriers arriving at the store are mostly bringing pre-sold vehicles."

Mercedes warned of more pain ahead in terms of production and sales.

"The whole semiconductor thing has gone through the auto industry like a whirlwind," Daimler CEO Ola Källenius told reporters last week.

"We're working literally around the clock with our supply partners to try to solve this issue and gradually get back to some kind of an equilibrium and normality."

Among other luxury brands, Audi reported sales of 41,019 in the quarter, down 14 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Porsche saw third-quarter sales slide 1.7 percent to 15,289.

Volvo's third-quarter sales climbed 4.2 percent higher to 31,611. But September sales fell 9 percent, ending the Swedish automaker's 15-month streak of year-over-year sales gains.

Third-quarter sales for Genesis, which has beefed up its product offerings this year, soared more than 300 percent to 15,022.

The wild card in the standings remains Tesla.

Sales results for the California luxury electric vehicle maker are not clear.

According to an estimate by the Automotive News Research & Data Center, Tesla delivered 84,000 cars and crossovers in the third quarter, up 55 percent from a year earlier.

That would put Tesla in first place in the U.S. luxury segment for the quarter and third place for the January-to-September period.

But Tesla only releases sales quarterly, and the company doesn't provide a breakdown by global region, making U.S. estimates difficult.