in the third quarter 12 of luxury car shoppers considered a tesla tsla product that’s down three percentage points from the second quarter the biggest drop in consideration among luxury brands bmw bmw led all makes as the brand more shoppers consider kelley blue book’s quarterly brand watch report is a consumer perception survey that also weaves in shopping behavior to determine how a brand or model stacks up with its segment competitors on a dozen factors key to a consumer’s buying decision tesla’s drop may not mean much in the short term its shoppers behave differently than buyers of other cars many traditional luxury car shoppers research multiple brands before buying while many tesla buyers only ever look at a tesla the company rose to become america’s bestselling luxury automaker without ever topping the brand watch survey but its slip to sixth place could also be a sign that increasing competition from other automakers is eroding its edge in the electric car market ceo elon musk’s controversial 44 billion acquisition of twitter and provocative political comments may also have contributed to tesla’s drop related the brands and models car shoppers want most—despite inventory levels bmw took home the title comfortably with 22 of luxury car shoppers considering a bmw product lexus and cadillac tied for second at 17 fifteen percent of shoppers considered an audi while mercedes rounded out the top five at 14 two tesla models dropped out of top 10 shopping consideration for the model 3 sedan declined by 10 from the second quarter the newest tesla the model y fell off the top 10 mostshopped luxury list a first in two years along with tesla’s oldest vehicle the model s also see tesla finds a loophole in states where dealerships are forbidden tribal lands despite some softening in consideration the cadillac escalade remained the no 1 mostshopped luxury vehicle for the third straight quarter indeed shopping for luxury suvs dominated again with 67 of luxury vehicle shoppers considering an suv six suvs dominated the top 10 mostshopped luxury vehicles the survey also asks buyers about the factors that drove their decision the top three factors durabilityreliability safety and driving comfort all remained unchanged from last quarter however both driving performance and affordability grew more important to shoppers in the third quarter check out the bmw xm powerful performance divisive looks fuel efficiency narrowly missed the top five factors a first in the luxury category – last quarter considerations most important to new car shoppers