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Mercedes fights off late BMW surge to claim 2013 luxury sales crown

The king is dead - long live the king. Mercedes-Benz is now your new US sales champion in the fiercely competitive luxury market, deposing the champ BMW, which has enjoyed annual supremacy for the past two years.
Thanks in no small part to the dynamite launch of the new, affordable CLA-Class, not to mention a redesigned E-Class and hot-selling S-Class, Mercedes moved 33,007 units in December alone, while sales in 2013 were up 14 percent, to 312,534. BMW, meanwhile, managed to sell 309,280 units in 2013. It was far from a sure thing for the Stuttgart-based brand, though, as BMW managed to nearly halve its rival's sales lead heading into the last month of 2013.
"We saw record sales, flexed our muscles across the entire product line from top to bottom and brought the customer experience to an all-time high," said Steve Cannon, Mercedes USA's CEO. While we don't have individual figures, it seems at first blush that the CLA was really the car that pushed Mercedes over the top.

Alpina D3 may be coming to Frankfurt with 350 hp, AWD

Rumors are swirling that Alpina, the tuning house that specializes in all things BMW, will followup its Geneva debut of the B3 Bi-Turbo with an oil-burning variant slated for debut at September's Frankfurt Motor Show. The news comes from Auto Zeitung, which reports that the second-generation D3 will be based off the Europe-only 335d.
This is a departure from the last D3, which had the four-cylinder turbo-diesel from the BMW 123d in a 3 Series body. The new model is expected to use a 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged inline-six, which will generate 350 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. That should scoot it to 62 miles per hour in under five seconds (likely while towing a tree stump). Both rear- and all-wheel drive should be available on the D3, and we imagine the thrill of this much power channeled through just the two rear wheels to be akin to skydiving sans parachute.
For our European friends that want an Alpina D3, but don't need more torque than any American full-size pickup, there may be plans to offer a four-cylinder variant that still delivers Alpina performance without a compromise in economy. We'll have more on the Alpina D3 when it debuts at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.

BMW X4 tunes up its crossover game in Germany

Except for the fancy wheels and the overly expressive fascias, the production version of the BMW X4 looks like it will carry over practically untouched from what we saw in the X4 Concept several months back. With the same fastback roofline as the concept, these spy shots show that the X4 is taking shape to be a baby version of the BMW X6.
Sharing the same platform as the X3, the lower and wider X4 will be positioned slightly more upmarket - as is the case with the X5 and X6. We hear that this could mean that the X4 will ditch the X3's base engine to give an even sportier feel right out of the gate, but word has it that an M version will being showing up down the road as well.
BMW has already revealed what it plans to show off at the Frankfurt Motor Show (i3, 4 Series Coupe, next-gen X5, refreshed 5 Series, X5 Concept eDrive plug-in hybrid and Concept Active Tourer Outdoor), so barring any surprised we definitely won't be seeing the X4 there. At this point, with as close to production as these images would have us believe, our best guess would be that we'll see the X4's official unveiling happen either at LA or Detroit.