BMW's October 2016 Global Sales Rise 1.1% - Up 5.5% YTD - Loses Ground to Mercedes-Benz

In the first ten months of the year, 1,646,743 BMW brand vehicles were sold around the world, 5.5% more than in the same period last year. In October, a total of 166,805 BMW brand vehicles were delivered to customers, an increase of 1.1% year-on-year. The global trend towards SUVs continues to be reflected in strong sales growth within the BMW X family. October sales of the BMW X1 more than doubled year-on-year with a total of 21,072 sold around the world (+139.1%); monthly sales of the BMW X3 increased by 5.1% to total 12,533 units while X5 sales rose by 4.9% (14,203). A year after it was launched, the brand’s flagship BMW 7 Series achieved sales growth of 79.0% in October, with a total of 5,664 delivered to customers worldwide. In the first ten months of the year, BMW 7 Series sales totalled 47,416 (+67.2%), making this sixth generation the most successful 7 Series ever in the year following launch.
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mre30 - 11/12/2016 10:01:07 PM

+1 Boost

The word of the day for BMW...

"Entropy" - lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.

I forsee BMW going the way of Renault, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, (?Mazda?), Fiat - joining the ranks of declining volume automakers whose brands no longer stand for anything - and which have sunk to that level after years of consistent, directionless management, inbred staffing, and executives who breathe their own air.

BMW should just sell itself to Honda right now - Honda would promptly shut down Mini and breathe new life into BMW. BMW should sell Rolls Royce to Geeley in China (i.e. Volvo) or Tata (i.e. Jaguar/Range Rover) in India (perhaps along with Mini?).

Look at the Peugeots of 1990 just before they left the US market - that's BMW's future unless they turn the ship around.

I'm sure if you got a look at BMW's accounts, you would see that the only profitable model lines at BMW are the 2/3/4-series, 5-series, X1, X3, and X5.

By the way, BMW's biggest engine should be the 3.0L twin-power turbo I-6. BMW's V8's, M-Series engines (V8, V10, I-6 super turbo) are so fragile, underdeveloped and prone to failure and high rates of oil-consumption within a short period of time - BMW should just get out of the 'big-engine' business - they needs to simplify.

They can start by doing the best 1/3 of their vehicles right and jettisoning the other 2/3.

Focus on 2/3/4-series, 5-series, X1, X3, X5. That's it. If BMW executed well on those and cancelled the rest of the lineup they would be better for it.

Because BMW would no longer be wasting engineering/development dollars on the i's, the 7, the 6, the X6, the X4, and the entire Mini lineup - BMW could lower prices on the remaining models and be more profitable than they are today.