Audi, the high-end unit of German car giant Volkswagen, said on Friday it had suffered less from the collapse of automobile markets than rival BMW after limiting its fall in April sales, AFP reported.
"Though worldwide automobile sales decreased considerably in April, Audi sales fell by only 5.6 percent - and less than competitors' figures," a statement said.
BMW was slammed by a drop of 24 percent, according to a statement by that group.
Mercedes-Benz had already posted a 24 percent fall in sales for April.
Although BMW and Mercedes currently dominate the luxury car market, Audi wants to take over the top spot, and results from the first four months of 2009 showed it was slowly catching up with the better known German brands.
All three were hit by the global slump, but Audi's fall was the smallest as it lost 14 percent from January to April from the same period in 2008 to 291,951 vehicles.
BMW showed a drop of 22 percent to 378,859 cars, while Mercedes sales were off by 23.3 percent at 335,000 vehicles.
Audi said that "the decline in sales on worldwide markets subsided considerably" last month.
For BMW however, "the situation ... remains very challenging - even though we did manage to gain market share" sales director Ian Robertson was quoted by that group's statement as saying.