2010 First Quarter sales figures for Mercedes Benz were 248,500 vehicles, beaten by Audi’s 264,100. BMW achieved 265,809 which put them in first place beating Audi by just 1709 vehicles. Audi are now of serious concern to its German rivals, in fact to all luxury car manufactures, because it looks like being a sales battle that Audi are going to win. Audi’s target of being the best selling luxury car by 2015 is looking very achievable.

Why are Audi doing so well? Simply because they have the formula absolutely right, the company rarely puts a foot wrong. We currently have far more demand for Audi A3 contract hire than we do for the BMW 1 Series, which is hardly surprising; many feel that the Audi has more class and the Audi A3 car leasing rate for the entry model is £209.99 plus VAT, whereas for the entry 1 Series model, the monthly cost is £234.42.

 The entry model for the BMW 3 Series costs £296.60 per month, the least expensive Audi A4 lease car costs £313 plus VAT per month, £16.40 more. However, the Audi A4 model is Diesel whereas the BMW model is petrol. The least expensive BMW 3 Series Diesel is £340 per month.

Admittedly the BMW X5 is £18.99 per month less expensive than the entry Audi Q7 contract hire model, but most of our clients feel that the Audi Q7 outclasses the X5 by far.

 Audi have produced a very desirable range of cars that many feel have more style than both Mercedes Benz and BMW, at very competitive prices and with excellent residual values. Good residual values is the key to contract hire companies being able offer Audi car leasing at such competitive rates. This is because at the end of your contract hire term the car leasing company has to sell your used Audi lease car; the better the price they can get for your Audi, the lower your contract hire rate will be.

 This is not only a battle for sales that Audi are likely to win but one they rightly deserve to win.