[Mark]

This is some great news! It sounds like BMW made a little uptick this last month as an overall global group.

BMW sold 90,383 cars, up 11.1% (compared to Nov 2008)
MINI sold 17,199 cars, up 13.8%

The increase in BMW cars sales were on the backs of the new 7 series and the Z4, with smaller gains seen with the 1 series, 3 series and 5 series. The newcomers did well also: 2,940 BMW X1s and 1,110 BMW 5 Series Gran Turismos were delivered November.


Rolls Royce and BMW Motorcycles were both down compared to Nov 2008. Overall, the entire year is still down 12.2% as compared to 2008, mostly due to the bad economy, but the uptick in sales as compared to last year is certainly a good sign that things are leveling off!

Munich. BMW Group sales continued their upward trend in November. Overall, the company delivered 11.5% more vehicles than in the same month last year at 107,686 (prev. yr. 96,609) units. Since the start of the year, 1,162,510 (prev. yr. 1,323,453 / -12.2%) BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce have been sold worldwide.

Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Sales and Marketing: “Since September, sales have been back on the growth track. In November we achieved another substantial increase in our global deliveries. We intend to continue this trend in December.”

In the month under review, sales of BMW brand automobiles rose to 90,383 units (prev. yr. 81,386 / +11.1%). A total of 963,712 (prev. yr. 1,104,983 / -12.8%) BMW vehicles were sold in the year to the end of November. Almost all BMW model series made gains. In November the strongest growth came from the BMW Z4, with an increase of 149.3% (1,760 / prev. yr. 706), and the BMW 7 Series, with gains of 57.1% (5,025 / prev. yr. 3,198). The BMW 1 Series saw growth of 11.7% (16,614 / prev. yr. 14,877), while the BMW 3 Series and the 5 Series reported gains of 3.4% (32,230 / prev. yr. 31,168) and 3.7% (14,164 / 13,665) respectively. In November growth was also driven by the X5 and X6 models, which registered total sales of 11,515 units (+3.6% / prev. yr. 11,120). The new BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo and BMW X1 models introduced in late October are being very well received by customers – new orders for both are well above plan. No less than 2,940 BMW X1 and 1,110 BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo were already delivered to customers in November.

MINI brand volumes were also considerably higher in November. With sales of 17,199 (prev. yr. 15,113) vehicles, deliveries rose 13.8%. For the year to the end of November a total of 198,163 (prev. yr. 217,415 / -8.9%) MINI cars were sold. In the past month Rolls-Royce delivered 104 automobiles (prev. yr. 110 / -5.5%). Between January and November 635 (prev. yr. 1,055 / -39.8%) of the brand’s vehicles were delivered to customers around the world.

With gains in Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa the BMW Group was able to improve its sales figures on almost all continents in the month under review.

In Europe 63,999 vehicles were sold (prev. yr. 57,187 / +11.9%), the majority – 59,698 units – in the major established markets of Western Europe (prev. yr. 53,972 / +10.6%). However, in Eastern Europe, also, all signs pointed to growth in November, with a total of 3,291 (prev. yr. 2,868 / +14.7%) deliveries.

In the Asian region, 33.3% more vehicles were sold in the past month (16,030 / prev. yr. 12,030). The trend in Asia’s largest market, China, remained extremely positive, with sales climbing 39.7% to 8,470 vehicles (prev. yr. 6,062). In Japan, Asia’s second biggest market, the BMW Group sold 2,885 units (prev. yr. 2,788 / +3.5%). But there were also welcome gains in many smaller Asian markets. For instance, in November sales increased 140% (103 units) in Indonesia, 139% (980) in South Korea, 136.8% (315) in Malaysia, 94.1% (295) in Thailand and 57.1% (256) in India.

In Oceania the company sold 28.4% more vehicles, with 2,051 (prev. yr. 1,597) deliveries in the month under review.

The BMW Group was also able to increase sales in Africa (+10.3% / 2,125 deliveries). South Africa, in particular, was once again the continent’s number one volume market with sales of 1,583 units (prev. yr. 1,450 / +9.2%).

With 15,708 (prev. yr. 15,217) deliveries, the BMW brand achieved a 3.2% increase in the month under review in the USA, whereas the MINI brand, with 2,564 (prev. yr. 4,545) deliveries, experienced a decrease of 43.6%. As a result, in the USA the level of sales for the BMW Group was down by 7.5% (18,272 / prev. yr. 19,762) compared to November 2008. However, the South American markets maintained their strong growth trend last month. For instance, deliveries in Brazil climbed 415.5% to 897 (prev. yr. 174) and Argentina reported an increase in sales of 37.6% to 249 (prev. yr. 181) units. Overall, the BMW Group reported a decrease in sales of 1.3% in the American markets (23,345 / prev. yr. 23,653) last month.

BMW Motorcycles sold 5,503 (prev. yr. 5,773 / -4.7%) motorcycles worldwide in November. For the year to the end of November, 81,946 (prev. yr. 94,237 / -13.0%) motorcycles were delivered to customers.

[Ricky Bobby]

What BMW is failing to include here is the sale of the 2009 cars to the dealers. They offered "punch" money on MINI's but this requires the dealer to take possession of the units, i.e. cannot be left on floorplan. So all of the MINI stores that punched the 2009's (and they all did) created a false sales report because those cars show as an RDR (retail delivery reported) and count as a sold car even though they were not sent home with a customer....just sayin...

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

What BMW is failing to include here is the sale of the 2009 cars to the dealers. They offered "punch" money on MINI's but this requires the dealer to take possession of the units, i.e. cannot be left on floorplan. So all of the MINI stores that punched the 2009's (and they all did) created a false sales report because those cars show as an RDR (retail delivery reported) and count as a sold car even though they were not sent home with a customer....just sayin...

Interesting. can you please elaborate. So what you saying is that the number BMW is reporting might be higher since BMWAG is not counting actual sales but rather every car sold to dealership regardless is that car is sold or still sitting on the lot?

[Ricky Bobby]

Manufacturers do this kind of thing all the time. We all know know that data can be skewed in any direction the data gatherer likes. What that scenario means to the dealer is that the car cannot be placed in demo/service loaner status or traded to another store. In return the dealer receives cash or "punch money" to buy down their investment in the car and create opportunity to negotiate, fluff the trade, or just show a discounted sale price. This is very very common in the domestic market and has become more popular with the high line German brands but is nearly uncharted territory for the MINI brand.

MINI NA gave the dealers cash last month to take the remaining 2009's off the books and then STUPIDLY implemented interest rates on the 2010 car ranging from 1.9% - 3.9%...the best credit may obtain a 5% rate on an 09 car (barring special scenarios and some credit unions). Expect an ugly down swing for December sales...but don't expect anyone at BMW to shine a light on it...

[bavarian19]

interesting news

[vladberca]

good news

[ska///235i]

interesting

but bmw sales are not up in my area

[philsteroni]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

What BMW is failing to include here is the sale of the 2009 cars to the dealers. They offered "punch" money on MINI's but this requires the dealer to take possession of the units, i.e. cannot be left on floorplan. So all of the MINI stores that punched the 2009's (and they all did) created a false sales report because those cars show as an RDR (retail delivery reported) and count as a sold car even though they were not sent home with a customer....just sayin...

Things have worked like that way before the recession.