BMW Sales Fail To Materialize In October Down 18.6% - Mini Sales Drop 20.8%

The BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported October sales of 20,619 vehicles, a decrease of 19.1 percent from the 25,475 vehicles sold in the same month of 2008. The BMW Group also reported a year-to-date sales volume of 199,838 vehicles, down 23.7 percent compared to 261,802 vehicles sold in the first ten months of last year.

BMW Brand Sales

Sales of BMW brand vehicles decreased 18.6 percent in October for a total of 16,443 vehicles compared to 20,203 vehicles reported in the same month a year ago. The sales volume met BMW's expectations for the month and reflected limited inventory of the new 2010 model lineup, which began to arrive at dealerships in the middle of October. Year-to-date, BMW brand sales were down 25.6 percent to 160,666 vehicles compared to 215,836 vehicles sold in the same period of 2008.

"In October, we continue to see the trend of high volume premium models grabbing the majority of sales while lower volume specialty vehicles lag their previous year's performance," said Jim O'Donnell, President of BMW of North America, LLC. "That's why we are concentrating our efforts on our core 3, 5, 7 and X5 series - all of which performed well with the 7 Series showing its best single month performance, outselling the same month last year by 10.3 percent to now lead the segment for the first time this year."

BMW Certified Pre-Owned (CPO)

In October, sales of BMW's Certified Pre-Owned vehicles increased 31.9 percent to 10,467 CPO vehicles versus 7,937 vehicles reported a year ago. Year-to-date, CPO sales were up 11.6 percent to 94,982 over the 85,081 reported in the same period of 2008.

MINI Brand Sales

MINI USA reported sales of 4,176 automobiles, a decrease of 20.8 percent compared to 5,272 cars reported in the same month a year ago when MINI benefited over-proportionally from $4 dollar gas prices. Year-to-date, MINI USA also reported sales of 39,172 automobiles, a decrease of 14.8 percent, compared to the 45,966 cars reported in the first ten months of 2008.

"October played trick or treat with us and we got a mixed bag of news with no clear trend," said Jim McDowell, Vice President MINI USA. "While our dealers reported a lot of cautious customers and pragmatic buying choices, we also saw an inspiring performance in the West with sales being above last year."


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