BMW Turns Back On 2016 After 5.2% Decrease In December And A Year End Decline Of 9.5%

It's all about having staid products that do not generate interest. BMW is the new Cadillac.

2016 was a complete disaster for BMW in the United States when compared to its competitors. Audi increased its December sales by 13.7% and achieved a 4.0% sales increase for 2016 as a whole.

BMW saw a 5.2% decline in sales for December and a pathetic 9.5% decrease for 2016 as a whole.

BMW's disastrous sales performance is to be expected though considering its products no longer live up to its slogan of "Ultimate Driving Machine," fail in areas its buyers view as important such as interior design and quality and cost as much or more than the competition.

BMW's lineup has sales problems throughout from entry level to high-end and from sedans to SUVs.

The i3 and i8 sales each collapsed nearly 30%. The best-selling 3-Series sedan and 4-Series Coupe sales dropped over 22% each. The high-end 6-Series sales fell by 51%.

SUV sales are rising faster than sedans but BMW obviously didn't get the message. The outdated X3 was the only SUV that saw its sales rise for 2016 as a whole. The X4, X5 and X6 each fell at least 10%.

Not a bad month for BMW, yearly performance could have been better but a lot of brands saw a total year-on-year decline.

Some interesting figures for December:

X5 comfortably outsold the GLE (recently face-lifted) and the Q7 (which is new).

The i8 still outsells the AMG GT and the R8 by quite a margin. Year on year the sales figures show that margin to be even larger.

The X3 is heading into its last year of production but is still gaining good figures, outselling the GLC (new) and not far behind the Q5 (not sure if the new one has launched in the US?)

The X1 continues to do well, selling almost as many units as the GLA and the Q3 combined.

7 Series sold almost as many units as the S-Class but I think the face-lift is due this year for the Merc so that should count in its favour sales wise later in the year.

If you combine the 3 and 4 series sales, almost 10,000 units vs the C-Class (includes coupe and convertible) and the A4 / A5 it's a product stack that's still dominating and a core part of sales.

I think 2017 is going to be a great year for customers looking to buy a luxury brand, the more competition the better.

.....hehehehehe

@cyberlancer but still dominating... even with the decline. Also, you sound very angry, is everything ok?

The BMW 3 and 4-Series, even thought each model suffered a sales decline of greater than 22%, might still be outselling the Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan and coupe and Audi A4/A5 but obviously BMW wants to see sales of its best-selling model increase not decrease. It's not good for BMW or its executives to be pleased with a 25% sales decline for the 3-Series.

For the U.S. market overall, BMW obviously is not dominating considering its 2016 U.S. sales were below both Mercedes-Benz and Lexus and it also suffered by far the largest sales decline in percentage terms. In 2015 BMW was the U.S. sales leader. If this trend keeps up, BMW might very well replace its chief of North America.

2016 was a complete disaster for BMW overall no question about it.

I never said that BMW was dominating overall, I was talking specifically about the 3/4 series as compared to their direct rivals. Obviously companies want to see all of their models do well with increases but it's not all doom and gloom when you're outselling your main competitors by a large margin when it comes to important segments. Even the C-Class had a 10% decline in sales ytd, doesn't mean it's not the best-selling sedan in it's segment.

Let's face it Germanut, everything is a disaster when it comes to your comments and BMW. You've been on here for years acting as though a BMW ran over your parents. Among other troll offences.

In recent posts you called the i8 a sales a disaster, the 7 series, and the X5. You actually recently said the whole BMW SUV range was a disaster and yet all of those cars are not sales disasters at all compared to the competition. That doesn't mean there may not be decline in sales but when you look at similar models from it's 2 main rival brands, just for SUVs, they're still outselling them in 2 out the 3 size categories they compete in. That was my only point.

Point taken. I was referring to the percentage sales declines and you were referring to the absolute sales figures. While the absolute sales figures are not disasters, the percentage declines are (for the 3-Series vs. A4, and BMW's SUVs vs. Audi's SUVs). It's just two different ways of looking at it.

I'm not sure how executives at BMW North America look at these sales figures (absolute vs. percentage change basis), but if I had to bet I think a lot of people are feeling the heat to turn around these large percentage sales declines and if that doesn't happen there will be personnel changes made.