January 2009 is a landmark year for BMW in India as for the first time, it overtook Mercedese sales in the luxury car market in India.
BMW says it sold 270 cars and sports utility vehicles compared to Mercedes Benz's 89 units.

Voicing the upbeat mood of the markets, Peter Kronschnabl, president, BMW India, said, ''We were able to take the lead in January thanks to the success of the 3 and 5-Series. Around April we will get a clearer picture of market demand and will be in a better position to predict on following months.''

A significant shift from last year's figures when BMW sold 2,908 units compared to 3,621 units for Mercedes Benz. This year, the things seem slated to change in favour of BMW.

BMW has sold 994 units of the 5 and 6 Series sedans in the current financial year as compared to 490 units sold during the same period the previous year. Both models are in the range of Rs40 lakh to Rs85.5 lakh.

Meanwhile, Mercedes saw a rise of only 9 per cent in sales of the E Class at 883 units as against 810 units in the same period last year.

"Our customers are not that different from our competitors but the key to our success lies in the fact that we have been able to create the environment at our dealerships, service points, buying experience, which is on par with our global standards. Most of our 3-Series customers are young professionals", added Kronschnabl.

The company launched three models in January including the new 7-Series, new 3-Series and the diesel variant of X3. The new luxury SUV X6, launched today is priced at Rs65.9 lakh for the diesel variant and Rs82.9 lakh for the petrol model.

The market for luxury cars expanded at a much faster rate than anticipated in 2008, however due to the on-going economic crisis the growth might be subdued this year according to experts. Despite this luxury carmakers are confident that the market will grow to 9,500 units by the end of next year from 7,500 units sold last year.

It was with the setting up of a new plant in Chennai in March 2007 for local assembly of the 3-Series and 5-Series sedan that sales of BMW began to show an upsurge. It made production substantially cheaper than imported counterparts.

To add to this, technical glitches have forced Mercedes Benz to postpone the launch of the all-new E Class.

BMW is expected to go ahead with another launch, which company officials say will not be a sedan, perhaps by the middle of this year.

Both companies have made special arrangements for financing their cars through tie-ups with banks and also through in-house financing arms. Although BMW has withdrawn the zero-per cent interest rate offer, executives say that the company is working on different concepts along with the dealers.