The race for the top-selling luxury marque in the United States took a turn in September as Mercedes-Benz used a 22 percent monthly gain to overtake Lexus after nine months, Automotive News reported.

“Lexus has been by far the luxury leader in this market and now Mercedes and BMW have closed that gap pretty rapidly,” Joe Barker, an industry analyst with IHS Automotive, said before results were released Friday. “The sales race will come down to the wire -- it will come down right to the month of December.”

Sales of Mercedes-brand vehicles, including Sprinter vans, rose to 20,675, as deliveries of the E-Class sedan continued to propel the brand.

“We're going to continue in the same direction as we have for the first nine months,” CEO Ernst Lieb told Bloomberg in an interview. “Will it be necessarily again another 22 percent up or so? Maybe not, but we definitely see a two-digit increase for the remainder of the year.”

Deliveries for BMW's namesake brand rose 21 percent to 18,228 from last September. Lexus sales fell 6 percent last month to 16,948, in an overall market that gained 29 percent from a weak September a year earlier.

“It's been a challenging year for the whole industry,” Brian Smith, U.S. vice president of Lexus sales, said in a conference call Friday. “We feel real good about where we are this year. I don't think we're going to lose leadership this year, but time will tell.”

Mercedes sales are up 22 percent 165,427 so far this year, while Lexus has risen 9 percent to 162,438. BMW deliveries are up 9 percent to 157,464 in an industry that has risen 10 percent.

Through August, Lexus had led Mercedes by 737 vehicles.

Those results don't include sales of Mercedes' Smart cars or BMW's Mini and Rolls-Royce brands.