Eyes on the Road

Eyes on the Road notes that entry-level luxury cars now face a lot of competition — it's not just the BMW 3-series versus the Audi A4:

Think back to four or five years ago. The universe of cars that could compete credibly with the BMW 3-series was relatively small. Cadillac was pushing a rebadged Opel called the Catera without remarkable success. Nissan Motor Corp.'s Infiniti brand was barely on the radar. Mercedes had its C-Class, of course, and Audi did good business with the A4. But other European brands like Volvo and Jaguar were barely in the picture in that segment.

Today, the entry luxury consumer's biggest challenge is narrowing down the choices. Infiniti's G35 sedan is outselling the Audi A4. June sales of the G35 sedan and coupe together outpaced sales of all Infiniti brand cars in June 2000. Sales of the new Mercedes C-Class line are up 74% since June 2000. Jaguar's X-type isn't a smashing success, but it beats nothing, which is what Jag had to compete with the 3-series four years ago. Cadillac, of course, has established itself as a credible contender with the CTS sedan.

But the real shocker is that Chrysler has come out of nowhere to make its new 300 C sedan the automotive sales equivalent of Spider-Man 2. In June, the Chrysler 300 C, which benefits from engineering expertise borrowed by Chrysler from sister DaimlerChrysler AG unit Mercedes-Benz, outsold all Cadillac brand cars, excluding SUVs, by a margin of 11,300 to 10,584. The 300 C also outsold all Lexus brand sedans and coupes in June, albeit by 168 cars. And the 300 C outsold all BMW 3-series models, combined, by a margin of 1,713 cars, according to figures compiled by Autodata Corp.

I've been quite impressed by Chrysler's external styling these past few years, but I'm not sure I'd want to own one. That said, the new 300 C has a 5.7L HEMI� V8 Engine. Wow.