What Is BMW's 3-Series Doing SO Well That It Is Ruling Entry-Level Luxury Sales?

This has to be one of the most intriguing pieces of data collected in quite some time.

As you can see in the below graphic, the chart is suppose to be a collection of sales from May 2010 and May 2009 in the "Junior Luxury Sedan" class -- not that I think that "class" really exists.

But there are some great numbers being displayed here.

For example, we see that BMW's 3-Series is destroying everything in this data set. But why? What does the 3-Series do that makes it stand apart so much from its cohorts?

Then there is the Buick Lacrosse, which can easily be seen has made a huge jump for the once stuttering brand.

OR how about companies like Acura and Lincoln that seem to losing some ground?

Is there a correlation between sporty and sales OR is it merely brand wars?

Let us know in the comments below...

TTAC Commenter Charles T writes in:

Any chance you could do $30-$40k entry-level luxury, ie BMW 3-series and everyone else gunning for a piece of that pie? For completeness sake, include cars that normally aren’t positioned against the 3-series despite being a similar price (Lexus ES and Lincoln MKZ, for example) just as a sense of their relative market sizes; I’d be curious to see how the sporty vs unsporty dichotomy plays out in the real world.