Luxury auto boom leaves Cadillac behind (Boo hoo) [View all]

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Don't tell Cadillac dealers this is one of the best years ever for luxury auto sales.


Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Audi are all outpacing the overall growth in auto sales, but Cadillac has the dubious distinction of being the only mass market luxury auto brand where sales are down in the first half of 2014.


"This is a tough time for Cadillac," said Dave Sullivan, an analyst with Auto Pacific. "They're not bad vehicles. In fact, Cadillac is doing the right things. Unfortunately, they are going after the same buyers as the Germans and right now the Germans are very strong."


In particular, Audi and Mercedes-Benz are thriving in the entry level luxury market where the Audi A3 and Mercedes CLA Class have done well in the first half of this year. By comparison, the Cadillac ATS, which has outsold the A3 and CLA individually this year, has seen sales slump 21.8 percent, according to the research firm Autodata.


So why have Cadillac sales slipped 1.2 percent this year?


General Motors (GM +1.04%) executives say nothing is wrong.


Cadillac still has an average transaction price of over $49,000 and the decision to cut fleet sales of Caddy's to rental car firms and corporations has weighed on overall sales.

That said, here are a few reasons why other luxury brands are driving past Cadillac when it comes to U.S. sales.

Mercedes, Audi winning entry-level battle

A year ago, the ATS was the engine driving Cadillac sales up 22 percent. It also had far less competition.

At the halfway mark of 2014, the Audi A3 and the Mercedes CLA Class have combined to outsell the ATS.


Some of that may be due to Cadillac CTS customers coming off of their leases and deciding they don't want to pay more to renew a CTS lease.

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