BMW has widened its lead in U.S. market premium sales.
The Bavarian brand's May sales were up 16 percent over last year. Total sales to date for 2011 (up to and including the month of May) were 92,068 vehicles. For the same period, second-place Mercedes-Benz sales were 90,274.
That lead of almost 2,000 units is significantly larger than at the end of last month (April). For the first four months of the year, BMW was ahead of Mercedes-Benz by just 29 units.
BMW already leads its premium-brand rivals in yearly global sales but the U.S. market has been the domain of Lexus for more than a decade.
But that is about to change since BMW is pulling ahead as Lexus is plagued by a production slow-down due to the tsunami disaster that struck Japan back in March.
