Luxury Car Sales Leave Regular Ole Car Sales in the Dust

Luxury brands like Audi, BMW and Rolls Royce are having a huge year so far. In early 2014, luxury auto sales were up 11 percent – with automakers selling almost 66,000 more vehicles in the U.S. than they did a year earlier, Businessweek reported.

For now, it appears that luxury cars are zooming past your average pick-up and sedan, becoming the American ride of choice for some extremely wealthy customers.

But not so fast. Rising sales of higher end models may indicate better times for the ultra-elite, Money reports, but overall the total number of cars sold is relatively small (1,968 worldwide from January through June, compared with 1,475 during the same period a year ago).

There is another factor to consider for the increased sales of luxury brands, says Money’s Brad Tuttle. “A major reason luxury auto sales are up is that the luxury brands like Mercedes and Audi have been pushing the boundaries of “luxury” with low-priced models that start in the Honda-Toyota $30,000 vicinity, with the CLA line and the A3, respectively” Tuttle said.