The most successful BMW 7 Series ever?



One of our readers emailed us this little tidbit:

The most successful BMW 7 Series ever.

Accounting for almost 160,000 units delivered to customers worldwide, the fourth-generation 7 Series is the most successful prestige luxury performance sedan in BMW's history. Since its introduction to the world in 2001, the current 7 Series has already outsold the former model by almost 8 per cent. And with customer deliveries of 57,899 units worldwide in its most successful year so far, 2003, the current BMW 7 Series outperformed its predecessor in that model's best year (1997) by almost 14 per cent.

The Spies contest that if the car would have been beautiful it not only would have outsold the old one by 8 times 8%, it would have become a SERIOUS challenger to the Mercedes S-Class.

The headline COULD have been...

'BMW 7-series the new champ!
Outsells Mercedes S-Class for the first time in history'



swizzleswizzle - 1/28/2005 8:42:03 AM
+1 Boost
Sales of all luxury sedans have improved during this time period, due to demographic changes and the popularity of the segment. A more meaningful statistic would be "market share." Last share data I saw showed the 7-series losing ground to both the A8 and LS430 and (I think) the S-Class. Funny, the BMW marketing wonks aren't boasting about that data!


SteveSteve - 1/28/2005 7:49:30 PM
+1 Boost
BMW's proud announcement of their "most successful prestige luxury performance sedan in BMW's history" is strikingly similar to Apple Computer Inc., proclaiming the wild success of their Macintosh line of computers, noting sales increases using carefully selected metrics while declining market share and metrics that do not support the optimistic vision are kept under the covers.

Years ago, I stated that the 7 was unattractive, and BMW would come to terms with this. It appears BMW is talking out of both sides of their mouths, boasting that the 7 series is an unqualified "success" while restyling the car to be less offensive.

I go on record again to say that BMW, as a company, is not stupid. I believe BMW will eventually conclude that Flame Surfacing was a blunder (although they will not publicly state this), and this "styling language" will become a thing of the past. I can hardly wait for BMW to once again make attractive automobiles.


SteveSteve - 1/28/2005 7:49:30 PM
+1 Boost
BMW's proud announcement of their "most successful prestige luxury performance sedan in BMW's history" is strikingly similar to Apple Computer Inc., proclaiming the wild success of their Macintosh line of computers, noting sales increases using carefully selected metrics while declining market share and metrics that do not support the optimistic vision are kept under the covers.

Years ago, I stated that the 7 was unattractive, and BMW would come to terms with this. It appears BMW is talking out of both sides of their mouths, boasting that the 7 series is an unqualified "success" while restyling the car to be less offensive.

I go on record again to say that BMW, as a company, is not stupid. I believe BMW will eventually conclude that Flame Surfacing was a blunder (although they will not publicly state this), and this "styling language" will become a thing of the past. I can hardly wait for BMW to once again make attractive automobiles.
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