Sales of luxury cars in Vietnam are apparently unfazed by the current economic downturn, with carmakers and dealerships saying their revenue exceeded targets in the first quarter of this year.

First-quarter sales of Euro Auto, the authorized dealership of BMW in Vietnam, rose more than 70 percent compared to the same period last year, according to CEO Horst Herdtle.

Speaking at the debut of the BMW X5 sedan in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, Herdtle said the growth is beyond prediction.

Euro Auto has experienced steady growth over the last seven years in Vietnam, in spite of the troubled economy, he added.

The BMW X5 has two editions – the xDrive35i, which fetches VND2.64 billion (US$124,500), and the xDrive50i, available at VND4.98 billion ($234,900).

Another luxury carmaker, Audi, has also posted positive business results in the year to date, according to its Vietnamese official distributor, Lien-A International JSC.

A company representative revealed to newswire Saigon Times Online that it enjoyed a double-digit expansion in the first quarter but refused to elaborate on the exact number.

Last year Lien-A International sold more than 600 Audi sedans of all models, an impressive increase of 88 percent from a year earlier, far exceeding its target, director Tran Tan Trung told Tuoi Tre.

Meanwhile, German player Mercedes-Benz, the only international luxury carmaker that has an assembling plant in Vietnam, enjoyed what Saigon Times Online said was the “most successful first quarter” in the history of 19 years being present in the Southeast Asian country.

The company sold 521 cars during the January – March period, up nearly 60 percent from the same period last year, Saigon Times Online reported.

Even a newcomer to the market like Lexus, the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota, racked up good sales. Toyota inaugurated its first Lexus dealership in Vietnam at the beginning of this year.  

Toyota Vietnam has received nearly 200 orders for five Lexus models and has so far completed half of them, according to Saigon Times Online. Lexus sedans are available in Vietnam from VND2.6 billion to VND5.7 billion ($122,600 - 270,000) each.

Industry insiders attributed the healthy sale of luxury cars to the reduced car registration fee applied in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the country’s two largest auto markets, as of early 2014.

The fee for ten-seat sedans was cut from 15 percent to 10 percent, which helps save a considerable amount of money for luxury car buyers.

In March alone, members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association sold 9,313 vehicles, according to the association’s figures.

Truong Hai Auto JSC, commonly known as Thaco, overtook Toyota Vietnam to be the largest car seller of the month.

The Vietnamese company posted sales of 3,339 sedans, accounting for 36 percent of the market share.

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