German luxury carmaker BMW failed to close the distance between itself and rival Mercedes-Benz on car sales in October, according to figures released by the company on Wednesday.

BMW sold 171,000 cars last month, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 per cent. The figure brings BMW's 10-month sales total to 1.74 million luxury cars.

Mercedes-Benz, the signature luxury brand of Daimler, sold 1.91 million cars in the first 10 months of the year - some 168,000 units ahead of BMW. Daimler saw higher sales in October after several months of a lull.

The Volkswagen subsidiary Audi sits behind the competition with 1.53 million cars sold in the first 10 months of the year.

The BMW Group sold 2.04 million cars in October, while Daimler sold 2.01 million.