BMW Sales Down 2.4%, Mini Up 44.1% For December, Both Gain Over 7.0% for 2007

2007 marks BMW Group’s 16th year of continuous growth in the U.S. Woodcliff Lake, NJ - January 3, 2008... The BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) today reported its best-ever annual sales for both its brands of 335,840 vehicles, an increase of 7.1 percent over the 313,603 vehicles sold in 2006. December sales for both brands of 33,761 were up 1 percent over the 33,417 vehicles reported in the last month of 2006.

BMW Brand Sales
BMW brand sales were up 7.1 percent year-to-date, to 293,795 vehicles compared to 274,432 vehicles sold during 2006. In December BMW brand sales declined slightly by 2.4 percent for a total of 30,199 vehicles compared to 30,945 vehicles reported in the same month a year ago.

MINI Brand Sales
For 2007, the division reported total sales of 42,045 automobiles, an increase of 7.3 percent, compared to the 39,171 cars reported through December of 2006. MINI USA also reported December sales of 3,562 automobiles, up 44.1 percent from the 2,472 cars sold in December 2006.

BMW Certified Pre-Owned
The company also reported a new record sales volume for its BMW Certified Pre-Owned business. Annual CPO sales were up 11.7 percent, to 89,795 over the 80,377 reported in 2006. In December sales were up 60.9 percent, to 9,496 vehicles from 5,901 in the same month a year ago.

theoptimisticpessimist - 1/3/2008 3:22:19 PM

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So far four luxury automaker off for December, is this a harbinger of the economy to come?

BMW4me4ever - 1/3/2008 4:28:46 PM

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2nd place to whom? For the German luxury brands BMW is number 1. For luxury cars in general, lexus is number 1 ( for sporte utes ) & BMW is number 1 ( for passenger cars ). Both Lexus & BMW are on top of their game...

S4cabriofoxone - 1/4/2008 1:51:55 AM

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And after owning an RX330 and now an X5, I can whole-heartedly say the BMW is significantly better, its price difference is fully justifiable and it is a better effort from BMW than the RX ever has been from Lexus.

theoptimisticpessimist - 1/3/2008 5:07:46 PM

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Go and drive one before making arbitrary remarks. Oh by the way, the entire automotive press disagrees with you.

ThierryHenry14 - 1/3/2008 5:30:19 PM

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and I think the millions of BMW owners also disagrees with you.

What do you drive? Certainly not a BMW I take it. You should drive one, and please do not say you have, because those who have knows what makes a BMW a BMW.

enthusiastx11 - 1/3/2008 6:35:30 PM

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"Everyone who drives one generally turns out to be some major poseur who simply leased it and can barely afford it but pretends to be all rich and that stuff."

well, the fact of the matter is that mercedes drivers have the highest income followed by bmw followed by lexus.

mini22 - 1/3/2008 7:07:02 PM

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Mr. Taylor-While Infiniti does make some comparable cars to BMW's they are not BMW's.BMW's still lead in the ride/handling compromise. The turbo 3.0 engine is a great engine with more refinement then the Infinity V6. Certainly Infinity offers an alternative to a BMW at a lower price. But there is a saying that you get what you pay for. Infinity is not quite there yet but Beemers can be very expensive so Infinty is a good compromise.

S4cabriofoxone - 1/4/2008 1:53:01 AM

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"well, the fact of the matter is that mercedes drivers have the highest income followed by bmw followed by lexus."

???

Audi buyers have the highest income. That is purely fact.

---

As for the other remark... no, I don't really pose next to the X5. It just fit in with our life, just like the other two cars.

Chip - 1/3/2008 4:08:35 PM

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Im glad you feel this way Mr.Taylor, someone with as little class as you shouldnt be driving around in a BMW.

Oh and for the record, I leased my 335i, I can afford it, and Im certainly not all rich and stuff, so your idea of a BMW driver seems to be coming from your own head.

BMW4me4ever - 1/3/2008 4:27:08 PM

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Taylor ... You are an idiot .. Infiniti is not a BMW and dont fool yourself otherwise. I guess the real poseur is the person buying a car for less money to pretend to have a drivers car. So you are the person that would buy a citizen watch, which looks like a rolex to pretend. When I was 7 years old I used to pretend too. I guess some never grow up.

bmwfan1513 - 1/3/2008 4:34:40 PM

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Minis are nice cars so I am not surprised that they went up. I am surprised that BMW went down though, but who cares because BMW owns Mini so it does not matter.

ThierryHenry14 - 1/3/2008 5:31:50 PM

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I guess the US auto market for 40+K cars is in a slight decline in December.

S4cabriofoxone - 1/4/2008 1:54:28 AM

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Considering all the downers this month, this is practically an increase. I wouldn't be surprised if the market share was higher than December 2006.

I don't know how they do it, but the guys at BMW really know how to work it all over the world.

validus00 - 1/4/2008 8:25:54 AM

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s4cab

i hope when you were referring to audi owners having the highest income i hope you weren't referring to the 2005 jd power income report, because that report is 2, almost 3 years old and it doesn't give any statistical report. we have no idea how big of a pool the data came from, the demographics and the location of the data sampling.

from all we know, the report may have been based solely in the US when audi 10 to 30% less cars in 2005. especially with the recent decline in the sales of A8 and A6s, I would question how affluent the average audi buyer is nowadays.

btw, mercedes and jaguar buyers had higher average HHI than audi according to the 2005 jd power report. and jaguar sold only around 35,000 cars in north america tops, in 2005, compared to near 200,000 mercedes in 2005.

2ndbimmer - 1/4/2008 10:27:36 AM

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I believe last year BMW didnt have a real strong november, or anyone else, but had a real strong december. This past holiday season seemed to be the opposite. Strong november and not as strong december across all brands. Years flip flop a lot, but march is always busy!

Chip - 1/4/2008 2:06:38 PM

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2ndBimmer you are very correct, I ordered my 335i in March of 2007 and my dealer was FLOODED with customers getting there refreshed 5-series and ordering up the new E92 coupe and E93 Vert. In fact, my Client Advisor informed me they were having their biggest month ever (3/07) and mentioned it was largely due to the accolades of the new turbo six.

In my opinion, with what they have on the horizon, BMW is absolutely unstoppable.

S4cabriofoxone - 1/5/2008 1:29:45 PM

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Chip, you're definitely right.

What I see from BMW is what Toyota should be doing right now. They are #1 in sales (and probably will be in the US soon--closing the gap on Lexus), but they haven't lost focus. Their cars still give you the best performance in the class, they still have the perfect ride/handling balance, the interiors are only getting better, and I love the styling on all cars they have but the X3. They're worth a look from any luxury car buyer who can afford one.

The only thing that worries me is that new "PAV" thing... what is the point of that???