BMW Sales Tumble 4.4% In July - Mini Sales Drop 8.0%

Sales of BMW brand vehicles decreased 4.4 percent in July for a total of 25,777 compared to 26,970 vehicles sold in July, 2015. Year-to-date, the BMW brand is down 8.4 percent in the U.S. on sales of 179,213 compared to 195,593 sold in the first seven months of 2015.

Notable vehicle sales include the BMW 7 Series which increased 31.3 percent, the BMW 2 Series which increased 66.1 percent, and the BMW X1 which increased 79.1 percent.

"The volatility that has characterized the 2016 sales year was clearly evident in the beginning of the third quarter," said Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America. "As we have seen through the early months of the year, the 2 Series and X1 have acquired a strong following and the 7 Series continues gaining ground. At the same time, the global popularity of our X models continues to constrain our sales here in the U.S."

BMW Group Sales
In total, the BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported July sales of 30,551 vehicles, a decrease of 5.0 percent from the 32,161 vehicles sold in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date, BMW Group sales are down 9.5 percent on sales of 209,131 in the first seven months of 2016 compared to 231,044 in the same period in 2015.

MINI Brand Sales
For July, MINI USA reported 4,774 automobiles sold, a decrease of 8.0 percent from the 5,191 sold in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date, MINI USA reported a total of 29,918 automobiles sold, a decrease of 15.6 percent from 35,451 automobiles sold in the first seven months of 2015.

GermanNut - 8/2/2016 2:00:47 PM

-1 Boost

The sales problems continue for BMW in the U.S. market. BMW fell another 2,750 units behind Mercedes-Benz in the month of July and is now behind more than 12,000 units YTD - a gap that is too large to close given there are only 5 months left. BMW is now guaranteed to lose its sales crown in the U.S. market

BMW's 3-Series, 4-Series, 6-Series are all down at least 21% YTD while the X4, X5 and X6 are all down more than 9% YTD.

The SUV collapse is especially problematic given that U.S. consumers are buying more SUVs than ever before and Mercedes-Benz only has one SUV model with a YTD decline (GLA at just -0.3%) and each of Audi's SUVs is up YTD, including the aging Q5.

BMW YTD Sales: -8.4%
MB YTD Sales: -0.6%
Audi YTD Sales: +3.6%

Until BMW can correct its U.S. sales decline, it will lose to Mercedes-Benz both in the United States as well as globally given how important the U.S. market is to BMW's total global sales.

ilovecar2015 - 8/2/2016 3:16:46 PM

0 Boost

Audi gains at the expense of BMW. Audi has the benefit of not fully expanded in the U.S market yet. Part of buying a luxury vehicle is to set apart, a lot of folks I know picked Audi just because they are too many BMWs, MBs and Lexuses out there.

carsnyc - 8/2/2016 4:57:27 PM

+1 Boost

Good point ilovecar2015. To sum up, here's YTD in the U.S only:

US Rank Units %
Mercedes-Benz #13 210,334 1.00%
Lexus #16 179,454 -4.90%
BMW #17 179,213 -8.40%
Audi #20 115,298 3.60%

cidflekken - 8/2/2016 7:32:17 PM

+1 Boost

Mercedes brand is at 191,300

MDarringer - 8/2/2016 5:14:33 PM

-2 Boost

Mini is in deep caca as far as dealers are concerned. BMW should have put Mini into every BMW dealer putting less pressure on the brand to sustain a stand-alone dealer.

PUGPROUD - 8/2/2016 6:48:16 PM

+1 Boost

BMW has played it too safe and its volume cars and SUV's have become boring. The exteriors and interiors need major rework to create some buzz and excitement to generate sales by current owners and non owners alike. It just seems to be squandering its brand equity as it tries to become a mass marketer. Like my mother use to say "When you try to please everyone you usually please no one."

MDarringer - 8/2/2016 7:06:05 PM

+1 Boost

Agree.

Mercedes always "brings it" with the S Class.

BMW showed rather captivating styling in show car form and then dumbed the look down to Camry bland.

BMW is staggering badly.

Consider that the FWD 1 Series is NOT coming when Audi and Mercedes have FWD sedans based on pedestrian platforms.

valhallakey - 8/3/2016 5:28:52 AM

+3 Boost

I also agree, I felt like BMW lost their focus the minute they moved away from the ultimate driving machine focus. The whole engineering, design and marketing teams seemed to change personnel. Some of the obvious signs of the changes were things like the dash no longer had a heavily driver centric focus, the engineers cheaped out in the trunk hinges across the board, every new car introduction started to sound like a fashion show, instead of getting into details of the engineering they would talk about how the light plays off of certain panels, the move from high revving naturally aspirated engines to more generic/less bespoke turbo motors... Now they want to be the Toyota of Europe but still command a premium price...not going to work IMHO.

MrEE - 8/2/2016 8:15:04 PM

+3 Boost

Consider if the German premium brands had not moved down market their sales would be dismal. Apparently BMW entry models taking away Mini sales. Likely the same for Audi vs VW.

GermanNut - 8/2/2016 9:04:40 PM

+2 Boost

It is clear BMW has a huge sales problem on its hands when the 3-Series is down 21.3% YTD, the 4-Series is down 23.6% YTD, the 5-Series is down 8.5% YTD and the X5 is down 29.0% YTD.

These 4 models make up 61% of BMW's YTD sales and the best that any single model could do was down 8.5%.

I strongly believe buyers are going to Audi and Mercedes-Benz instead of BMW due to BMW's cheap interiors, driving dynamics that simply blend in with the competition instead of exceeding it and boring styling.

Given that the new 5-Series is set to look just like the current 5-Series, which is exactly what happened with the new 7-Series, it appears BMW's sales will not turn around until sometime in 2017.