Luxury vehicle growing interest in luxury vehicles from emerging markets such as China and Russia. The entry-level luxury segment has been very competitive, and there has been price-overlapping with well-equipped non-luxury cars. For example, in Canada, several luxury manufacturers set sales records in August 2009, due mostly to aggressive incentives on entry-level luxury vehicles. In September 2009, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Audi all saw their Canadian sales increase by more than 10 per cent compared to a year earlier, despite overall Canadian auto sales being down 3.5 per cent compared to September 2008. The head of Mercedes-Benz Canada suggested that the brand
Luxury vehicle produced in North America (such as BMW Spartanburg) instead of the luxury marque's home country. Some of these models were not traditional SUVs based on light trucks, rather they are classified as crossovers using unibody constructions. SUVs from non-luxury brands had experienced a surge in popularity through early 2000s, causing the traditional luxury marques to follow. SUVs from the luxury marques grew at almost 40 percent to more than 430,000 vehicles, excluding SUV-only brands like Hummer and Land Rover, while luxury car sales in the U.S. during 2003 suffered a 1% decline, and non-luxury SUV sales were flat. By 2004,