BMW-brand deliveries jumped 13 percent in 2011 to 1.38 million cars and sport-utility vehicles, the Munich-based manufacturer said today in a statement. Volkswagen AG’s Audi placed second with a 19 percent gain to 1.3 million deliveries to overtake Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, which posted an 8 percent increase to 1.26 million cars and SUVs, according to Bloomberg.

Chinese sales growth exceeded 30 percent at all three carmakers, with a 37 percent jump in Audi deliveries turning the country into the biggest market for the Ingolstadt, Germany- based company. The manufacturers are introducing models such as Audi’s updated A4 sedan and Mercedes-Benz’s revamped SL roadster at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which is holding its press day today, as BMW seeks to maintain an industry lead that the others have vowed to overtake.

“Given the product momentum and given the regional sales momentum, I see no reason why Audi shouldn’t grow stronger than Mercedes this year, and BMW will also grow stronger,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse who has a “neutral” recommendation on Daimler an “outperform” on BMW and Volkswagen. “China is slowing down, but it is still a market that for the premium makers will grow by about 20 percent this year.”

Group sales at BMW, including its Mini small-car brand and Rolls-Royce super-luxury marque, rose 14 percent to 1.67 million vehicles in 2011. Deliveries in Europe increased 8.5 percent, while sales in the U.S, BMW’s biggest national market, jumped 15 percent.

Including a 4.6 percent increase for the Smart two-seat brand, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Cars division posted a 7.7 percent gain to 1.36 million deliveries. The Mercedes-Benz marque’s growth was held back by a 1 percent decline in western Europe. Deliveries in the U.S. increased 13 percent.

Growth at Audi contributed to a 14 percent sales jump at Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, which delivered a record 8.16 million cars, SUVs and vans last year. VW’s namesake brand sold 13 percent more vehicles at 5.09 million deliveries, and sales at the van unit jumped 21 percent. The Skoda brand’s deliveries rose 15 percent and the Seat brand’s increased 3.1 percent.

Audi expects its sales gains this year to exceed the global automotive market’s predicted growth of 4 percent, division Chief Executive Officer Rupert Stadler told reporters in Detroit today. China’s industrywide car sales will probably rise 8 percent, he said.

The VW unit is likely to maintain its second-place luxury- car industry rank until 2014 or 2015, as Mercedes-Benz needs to build up sales of the lower-priced A-Class and B-Class lines, Ellinghorst said.

Daimler Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche set a goal last year of returning to the No. 1 spot in luxury-car sales by 2020. BMW overtook Mercedes-Benz as the industry leader in 2005.

Zetsche is “very optimistic” that Mercedes will regain the top ranking and isn’t ruling out beating the deadline, the CEO said today in a Bloomberg Television interview from the Detroit show. The new A-Class, being presented at Detroit, is intended to signal that Mercedes is a “more dynamic” brand, Zetsche said.

The 2012 328i sedan will start at $35,795, up $320 from the model it replaces, and the 335i will go up $370 to $43,295, the automaker said today. Both prices include an $895 destination charge, reported Automotive News.

BMW said the cars will have more equipment than the models they replace, including a 6.5-inch central display with its traditional iDrive controller for audio, climate and other settings. The cars will also have a USB/iPod interface, an eight-speed automatic transmission, a start/stop function and brake-energy regeneration.

The redesigned versions may give the automaker a boost next year in what could be a bid to retain the title of top-selling luxury brand in the United States. Through October, BMW led Mercedes (excluding Sprinter vans) by about 7,000 sales and had more than a 45,000-unit lead over earthquake-hampered Lexus, the perennial No. 1.

Last year BMW sold 100,910 3-series cars in the United States, significantly beating the second-biggest seller in the compact luxury sedan segment, the Mercedes-Benz C class (58,785) and the Infiniti G (58,143). Through October, BMW sold 78,314 3-series cars.

The 328i sedan will have a new 2.0-liter twin-turbo four-cylinder engine, and the 335i will continue to feature BMW’s twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder powerplant. Both engines are gasoline; a diesel will be added later.

For the first time, the 3 series will be offered in three trim and equipment levels: sport, luxury and modern.

The 2012 3-series sedan will make its U.S. debut at the Detroit auto show in January.

Profit rose to €1.08 billion ($1.48 billion) in the third quarter from €871 million a year earlier. Earnings before interest and tax—a closely watched figure by analysts—rose 44 percent to €1.72 billion from €1.19 billion. Revenue increased 3.8 percent to €16.5 billion from €15.9 billion, reflecting a 9 percent sales rise to 399,218 vehicles, reported The Wall Street Journal.

“We achieved new records for sales volume, revenues and earnings,” Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer said in a statement, the latest sign that demand for luxury cars appears to be unaffected so far by wider economic concerns.

Mr. Reithofer said he expects markets to remain volatile until at least 2015 and that economic growth is poised to slow in 2012, but he doesn’t expect a recession.

“We expect to see continued volatility due to the high level of national debt, the euro crisis and rising inflation,” Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner said during a conference call, adding that BMW “explored various scenarios and made the necessary preparations.”

The world’s best-selling luxury auto maker said it is well placed for further growth as it has one of the market’s youngest product line-ups, following several model changeovers including the new-generation 5-series, a key model both in terms of sales volume and revenue per vehicle.

Mr. Eichiner said the positive sales trend is expected to continue in the fourth quarter, but a big chunk from the €500 million in launch costs for the revamped 1-series and 3-series, a less favorable model mix as well as seasonal effects will weigh on earnings in the final quarter and push profit margin below the 11.9 percent reached in the third quarter.

The German car maker repeated that it wants to sell more then 1.6 million vehicles this year for the first time, and Mr. Reithofer said the company expects to achieve its financial targets for its full year.

Stocks from auto makers and their suppliers were hard hit during the recent stock market rout, but BMW has held up relatively well as investors expect the Munich-based firm to cope better with a weakening economic environment than many industry peers due to its large footprint in the lucrative premium segment and surging demand in China.

“We have a window to stay No. 1 in the first quarter,” Ludwig Willisch, who took over BMW’s North American operations Oct. 1, said in an interview yesterday in New York. “Our model lineup is broad. We have a lot of opportunities to get there.”

The BMW brand and Mercedes have been fighting to take the luxury sales crown away from Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus, which has been the annual leader for 11 years, reported Bloomberg. BMW ended September in the lead with 177,679 sales while Mercedes is in second place with 170,058. Those results exclude Daimler’s Sprinter vans and Smart cars and BMW’s Mini brand, which aren’t luxury vehicles.

Willisch’s remarks run counter to those of his predecessor, Jim O’Donnell, who said in an August interview that BMW will probably be outsold by Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz early next year before the redesigned 3-Series hits U.S. dealerships.

Updated Mercedes C-Class models went on sale last quarter while BMW is still selling older 3-Series compacts. The 3-Series is slated to hit U.S. showrooms in March or April, BMW says.

“In the first quarter of next year, I would say Mercedes” will be No. 1, O’Donnell said in August. “Mercedes going into 2012 in the first quarter will be in a strong position. Over the course of the year, we still should be ahead of Mercedes.”

BMW isn’t conceding 2012’s first quarter, Willisch said.

“We’re not going to ask our customers to buy another brand,” he said yesterday in an interview at BMW’s dealership on 57th Street in Manhattan.

Lexus, in third place, saw sales fall 16 percent this year to 135,647, hindered by a lack of inventory after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan reduced output of vehicles.

BMW’s sales success over the past year has been driven by the redesigned 5-Series sedan and X3 sport-utility vehicle.

The 3-Series relies on leasing, and sales are slowing as it nears the end of its product cycle, said Jesse Toprak, an industry analyst with TrueCar.com, a Santa Monica, California- based website that tracks auto sales.

“From the product-lifecycle perspective in terms of leases, it’s a little long-in-tooth,” he said.

U.S. sales of the 3-Series sedan, coupe, convertible and wagon fell 3.9 percent this year through September compared with last year, according to researcher Autodata Corp. The compact line accounts for more than half of the brand’s U.S. car deliveries.

The BMW-Mercedes competition is playing out worldwide. BMW is the global leader followed by Volkswagen AG’s Audi brand and Mercedes. Daimler’s target is to be the top luxury seller globally by 2020.

Willisch, 55, comes to BMW’s Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, offices from a position as the head of European sales. He has also run BMW’s M performance brand and led sales units in Germany, Japan and Sweden.

The sixth generation of BMW’s best-selling model, which debuted today in Munich, will hit showrooms February 11, about two years before Audi overhauls the $32,500 A4. That head start may help BMW’s lead over Audi surge 43 percent in 2012, according to an IHS Automotive forecast.

Backed by the overhauled 3-Series and recently revamped 1- Series compact, which together accounted for 49 percent of BMW’s sales last year, “2012 will be the sweet spot for BMW,” said Stefan Bauknecht, a DWS Investment fund manager in Frankfurt. “The 3-Series renewal improves sales volumes and pricing power, creating an immense margin advantage.”

The renewed 3-Series, BMW’s entry-level sedan, will adopt parts and technology from the 1-Series and full-size 5-Series to lower production and development costs, reported Bloomberg. Higher profit from the car may help the manufacturer weather a looming economic slowdown. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said this week that the region’s debt crisis has reached “a systemic dimension,” while China warned of “severe challenges” to the global economy.

“The model cycle is arguably more important for upscale carmakers than the economic cycle,” said Juergen Meyer, who manages about 700 million euros ($960 million) for SEB Asset Management in Frankfurt. BMW’s profitability lead “could reach its apex in 2012 on the 3-Series.”

BMW’s auto unit reported earnings before interest and taxes equivalent to 14.4 percent of sales in the second quarter, outpacing 11.8 percent at Audi and 10.7 percent at Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz. The Munich-based manufacturer has been the second-best performer in the Euro Stoxx autos and parts index over the past three months after tiremaker Pirelli & C. SpA, falling 22 percent compared with VW’s 24 percent drop and Daimler’s 29 percent slump.

The updated 3-Series, which was originally introduced in 1975, will be 9.3 centimeters (3.7 inches) larger than its predecessor and be available in Sport, Modern and Luxury packages to increase customization options. It will also be available with a head-up display, which projects speed limit and other data onto the windshield, and collision-warning systems. The 320d version, which can get as much as 57 miles per gallon, will start at 35,350 euros, 1,050 euros more than the current version. A hybrid will be available in the fall 2012.

The larger size and new customization options could help BMW win over customers from other manufacturers, according to Werner Entenmann, head of Autohaus Entenmann in Esslingen near Stuttgart.

“The new 3-Series has potential to capture customers” from the likes of Mercedes, Audi, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.’s Opel, said Entenmann, who counts on the model to generate more than 35 percent of his dealership’s sales of about 1,400 BMW cars a year. He plans to hold an event for 4,000 customers when the model goes on sale Feb. 11. “It’s decisive for us,” he said.

Sales of the 3-Series are projected to jump 22 percent to 448,600 cars next year, boosting the BMW brand’s deliveries 9.3 percent to 1.47 million, according to IHS. Audi, which aims to grab the number-one position by 2015, will likely see the gap to BMW widen to 139,700 autos from 97,400 in 2011.

Mercedes, which likewise covets the luxury-car crown, may get closer to BMW, buoyed by a new line of compacts. IHS forecasts Mercedes trailing BMW by 108,700 vehicles in 2012, closer than the 110,500 this year.

“Renewing the 3-Series is like renewing the company,” said Christoph Stuermer, an IHS analyst in Frankfurt. “The 3- Series has to be BMW’s response to the automotive challenges of the next decade,” and therefore needs to address the demand for cleaner vehicles, while generating the profit needed to pay for further development.

BMW is investing more than 1 billion euros in German factories in Munich and Regensburg, and at a plant in Rosslyn, South Africa, to produce the model. BMW has sold more than 12 million of the vehicle since its introduction.

“The new BMW 3-Series has excellent prospects for expanding its leading global market position,” Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer said today.

Mercedes and Audi aren’t sitting still. Audi plans to roll out a face-lifted version of the current A4, which was introduced in 2007, in the first half of 2012 with cleaner engines and other improvements, said Moritz Drechsel, a spokesman for the Ingolstadt, Germany-based carmaker.

Mercedes upgraded the C-Class in 2011 with new engines and a restyled front end and interior. Next year, the Stuttgart, Germany-based carmaker plans to show the CLC four-door coupe, which will include high-performance AMG versions, to target sportier 3-Series customers, said a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified discussing internal planning. The next-generation C-Class is due in 2014.

Those responses may not be enough to overcome BMW’s early start. IHS predicts the manufacturer will further expand its lead in 2015 to 219,100 vehicles over Audi and 141,500 over Mercedes.

“They have two to three years where they can absolutely nail it,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst with Credit Suisse who has an “outperform” rating on BMW stock.

Sales at BMW’s namesake brand rose 9.3 percent to 128,446 vehicles in September as deliveries of the X3 more than tripled, the Munich-based automaker said today in a statement. Audi posted a 17 percent gain, delivering 120,200 autos on stronger demand in China, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based company said.

“It’s all holding up extremely well,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst with Credit Suisse in London. The growth rates of about 20 percent that BMW and Audi posted in China are “quite healthy.”

BMW, Audi, and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz are targeting record sales this year and anticipate demand for high-end vehicles to outpace the broader auto market in the coming years, reported Bloomberg. European investor confidence fell to the lowest in more than two years this month on concern that the region’s debt crisis and weaker growth in emerging markets will hurt economic expansion.

“We made solid gains across the globe and once again achieved record sales for September,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s sales chief, said in the statement. The company is “on course” to meet its target of delivering 1.6 million vehicles this year and aims to maintain an “upward trend” in the fourth quarter, he said.

BMW rose as much as 3.7 percent to 52.78 euros and was up 3.6 percent at 4:16 p.m. in Frankfurt. The stock has fallen 10 percent this year, valuing the company at 33.8 billion euros. Daimler gained 3.8 percent to 35.28 euros and Volkswagen jumped 4.8 percent to 106.30 euros.

Audi aims to sell more than 300,000 vehicles in China for the first time after already surpassing last year’s total, Peter Schwarzenbauer, Audi’s sales chief, said in the statement. The carmaker also increased deliveries in debt-strapped countries such as Italy and Spain, helped by the A6 sedan and A1 subcompact, the company said.

“Growth is being driven above all by the emerging markets, primarily from China, but also from Brazil, Russia, India and Turkey,” said Marc-Rene Tonn, a Hamburg-based analyst with Warburg Research, who recommends buying Daimler and Volkswagen shares, and has a “hold” rating on BMW. “The question is how the sales values hold up there.”

BMW expanded its lead over Audi and Mercedes after the first nine months of 2011, delivering 1.02 million vehicles compared with Audi’s 973,200 and Mercedes’s 919,288. The Daimler unit, which aims to overtake Audi and BMW by 2020, remained in third place after sales last month edged up 2 percent to 120,982 cars and SUVs, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said Oct. 5.

“It’s probably not going to get much better for Mercedes before 2013,” said Ellinghorst. Consumers are looking to trade down to smaller vehicles, a “weak” area for Mercedes, he said.

Mercedes’ best-selling C-Class will also face tougher competition next year, as BMW prepares to introduce a revamped version of the 3-Series sedan.

BMW generated the highest profit margin of the top three luxury-car makers, with its auto unit posting earnings before interest and taxes equivalent to 14.4 percent of sales, up from 9.6 percent a year earlier. That beat margins of 11.8 percent at Audi and 10.7 percent at Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, according to Bloomberg.

“For an analyst who’s covered BMW for 11 years it’s amazing to see this level of earnings,” said Max Warburton, a London-based Sanford C. Bernstein analyst with an “outperform” rating on the stock. “At no point in the past would it have been imaginable that this company could make margins of this level.”

Demand for the revamped 5-Series sedan and X3 sport-utility vehicle helped the maker of BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce models keep its high-end segment lead. Deliveries this year of the $45,050 5-Series have jumped 80 percent and the $36,750 X3 has more than doubled, fueling an 18 percent rise in the BMW brand’s first-half deliveries. Audi, which passed Mercedes this year and aims to topple BMW by 2015, also boosted sales 18 percent.

BMW closed down 1.92 euros, or 2.8 percent, at 65.79 euros, after gaining as much as 2.4 percent in Frankfurt trading earlier in the day. The stock has risen 12 percent this year, valuing the company at 42 billion euros ($60 billion). VW is up 9 percent in 2011, while Daimler has dropped 6.5 percent.

BMW’s second-quarter Ebit climbed 66 percent to 2.86 billion euros, the Munich-based carmaker said today. Profit beat the 2.3 billion-euro average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“This is not a one-time event for BMW,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based Credit Suisse analyst with an “outperform” rating on the shares. “They have the strongest product lineup and best execution in the market.”

Germany’s luxury-car makers are ramping up production to satisfy growing demand in China and rebounding spending in the U.S. Mercedes is building a factory in Hungary and expanding a plant in Alabama, while Audi has added production in Spain.

BMW will expand a South Carolina factory to 300,000 vehicles next year from 270,000 in 2011, and will likely decide in favor of building a new facility to assemble vehicles in Brazil from parts produced at other plants, Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer said today.

“We are producing at the limit” and the waits for some models like the X3 are “too long,” said Reithofer.

Second-quarter net income more than doubled to 1.81 billion euros from 834 million euros as revenue gained 17 percent to 17.9 billion euros. Earnings were boosted by 464 million euros in one-time gains from releasing risk provisions. Excluding the one-time gains, BMW generated an auto margin of 13.9 percent.

BMW raised its 2011 profit and sales forecasts on July 12, citing strong demand for its vehicles. The company today said that ebit at its auto division will exceed 10 percent of revenue in 2011, excluding one-time effects. Sales are projected to rise to more than 1.6 million vehicles.

“From today’s perspective, it seems unlikely that we will be able to maintain the high ebit margin of the second quarter through the rest of the year,” Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner said.

The increase in deliveries declined to about 7 percent in July and growth will likely be slower overall in the second half because of lineup changes and higher deliveries a year earlier, the carmaker said.

“Global risks continue to increase rather than decrease,” said Reithofer. “Concerted action of the international community is required to be able to maintain economic and financial strength worldwide.”

BMW will introduce an overhauled version of the 1-Series compact in September in a bid to outsell Audi’s A3. Model introductions will add about 500 million euros to expenses in the final six months of 2011, while higher raw material prices will increase costs by more than 100 million euros, Eichiner said. The company is targeting margins in a range of 8 percent to 10 percent on average after this year.

“BMW’s margins have peaked,” said Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Bankhaus Metzler who has a “sell” rating on the stock. “The best phase of the cycle is behind it, as the product mix will start deteriorating with the 1-Series.”

BMW, the maker of Mini and Rolls-Royce models, said today deliveries will increase beyond 1.5 million units this year from 1.46 million in 2010. Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit is aiming to deliver 1.2 million cars and sport-utility vehicles up from 1.09 million. Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz division expects record sales after delivering 1.17 million vehicles.

“We’re looking forward to a very upbeat year in 2011,” Audi Chief Executive Officer Rupert Stadler said at the Detroit auto show. “It is programmed to growth.”

Demand for luxury cars including BMW’s 5-Series, Mercedes’ top-of-the-line S-Class and Audi’s A8 flagship sedan is swinging back from the global recession, a rebound in the U.S. and the fastest growth since reunification in 1990 in Germany, the three manufacturers’ home-market, reported Bloomberg.

Sales in 2011 will be “defined by production capabilities rather than demand,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said at the show. “That’s a good problem to have.”

Munich-based BMW, which premiered the 6-Series convertible in Detroit and the M1, the first high-performance version of its 1-Series compact, is targeting 2 million sales by 2020. Mercedes is presenting a diesel S-Class, its fifth U.S. diesel model while Audi is rolling out an updated A6 sedan at the show.

“Customers are willing to spend again,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany. “The momentum in the luxury segment is gaining ground, there’s no denying about that.”

Porsche AG, the German maker of the 911 sports car, said orders jumped 49 percent to a record 114,000 vehicles last year. The manufacturer expects to sell more than 100,000 vehicles this year after delivering 97,000 units in 2010, according to Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller.

“We’re entering the new year with considerable confidence,” Mueller said at a Detroit presentation.

Deliveries of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models rose 20 percent from a year earlier to 129,014 vehicles in November, the Munich-based automaker said today in a statement. Sales by Volkswagen AG’s Audi division increased 5.2 percent to 87,050 vehicles, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based unit said today. Deliveries by Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz Cars, including the Smart city-car brand, jumped 14 percent to 112,300.

Growth in China and a rebound in the U.S. are propelling a recovery in luxury-car demand following the global recession. The 5-Series, X1 and new Mini Countryman have given BMW extra momentum. The November sales increase, BMW’s biggest monthly gain this year, lifted 11-month deliveries to 1.32 million vehicles, a gain of 14 percent.

“At BMW, you can clearly see the strong success of the new products,” said Marc-Rene Tonn, an analyst at M.M. Warburg in Hamburg who recommends buying the stock. “That will continue with the new 6-Series next year, followed up later by the 1- Series.”

BMW fell 3.3 percent to 61.90 euros as of the 5:30 p.m. close of trading in Frankfurt, paring the stock’s gain this year to 95 percent. Volkswagen’s preferred stock fell 5.6 percent to 129.25 euros, while Daimler slipped 1.6 percent to 53.26 euros.

Audi Beats Record

Audi, which aims to overtake BMW as the luxury-auto sales leader by 2015, said its deliveries in the 11 months through November surpassed the full-year sales record set in 2008, with more than 1 million vehicles sold.

The pace of growth slowed last month after “super” performance a year earlier, when Audi received a boost from the German government’s car-scrapping sales incentives, said Esther Bahne, a spokeswoman. The brand would have reported a decline in deliveries last month without the roughly 7,500 A1 cars that customers bought in November, she said. The subcompact was introduced in September.

5-Series Sales Jump

BMW’s revamp of the 5-Series boosted deliveries of the sedan by 87 percent to 20,702 cars. BMW sold 9,160 X1s, topping 100,000 deliveries for the SUV since it was introduced in October 2009. The Mini brand sold 4,165 units of the Countryman, which went on sale in September as the division’s first four- door model. The model accounted for 20 percent of Mini sales last month, BMW said.

The BMW brand defended its lead this year with 11-month sales rising 15 percent to 1.11 million vehicles. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand increased sales 16 percent to 1.06 million vehicles in the period, while Audi deliveries climbed 15 percent to 1,003,900 cars and SUVs.

“BMW is well on its way to reaching its target of more than 1.4 million units this year,” Ian Robertson, the manufacturer’s sales chief, said in the statement.

“We’re chasing profit more than we’re chasing volume,” said Peter Miles, executive vice president of operations for BMW’s North American unit. He spoke in an interview today in advance of the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the press tomorrow.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus, helped by customer discounts, earned the top-selling luxury spot in October, the first time since May, to help widen its lead for the year. The Toyota City, Japan-based company’s luxury brand is under pressure to keep the lead after Toyota’s record recalls this year and new products from competitors BMW and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz division.

The average cost of incentives on Lexus cars rose to $3,746 in October from $1,121 a year earlier, while incentive spending on Lexus trucks rose to $2,810 from $696, according to Autodata Corp., a Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based researcher.

BMW lowered its incentive spending by 39 percent last month to an average of $2,926, while Mercedes was relatively flat with a decline of 3 percent to $3,879, Autodata said. BMW’s incentive spending declined 27 percent for the year through October and Mercedes dropped 30 percent.

Subsidizing Leases

BMW traditionally spends most of its incentive money on subsidizing leases, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com, a researcher that follows automobile sales and marketing.

“This year, because of the recovery in the leasing markets, BMW actually was able to control their incentives while still being able to offer attractive lease programs,” he said.

While the same improved leasing conditions apply to Lexus and Mercedes, those automakers are spending on incentives as they go for the No. 1 selling spot, he said.

U.S. sales for this year through October totaled 183,529 for Lexus, 178,080 for Mercedes and 176,736 for BMW, the global leader in luxury-vehicle deliveries.

The totals don’t include non-luxury models such as BMW’s Mini cars or Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler’s Smart cars and Sprinter vans.

BMW’s November and December incentive spending should be in line with October, Miles said, without providing details.

The company’s U.S. sales will increase 16 percent next year on growth from new products such as the redesigned X3 sport- utility vehicle, the 5-Series and the new 6-Series, Miles said.

“We’re fueling our growth now with new products,” he said.

The race for the No. 1 spot should continue to be close next year, analysts said.

“I think we will see a photo finish” of the 2011 selling year, Toprak said.