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Old November 7th 04, 01:28 AM
GRL
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People who frequent this news group are not your typical BMW heads. They are
car enthusiasts with a particular liking for Bimmers.

I think a large part of the audience for BMW's in this country (USA) are
people who view a BMW as a respectable Buick and really don't care all that
much about the driving experience as impacted by, for example, cryptic
controls...or questionable styling. (Who do you think they screwed up the
steering effort for in 2001 3-series?) If it has the spinning propeller
blades on it somewhere, the two kidneys grill, and a sufficiently high price
tag to make it "exclusive", that's good enough. If it's a new model, so much
the better. Evidence is the large number of 2.5 L 3-series and 5-series cars
sold and the overwhelming preponderance of automatic cars sold here. The 2.5
L 3-series is seriously under-powered (test drove one this summer with a
manual and words escape me as to how under-whelmed I was, the 5-series has
to be worse), yet it is the 3-series bread and butter version. I already got
flamed to the moon for my comments on what I think about the concept of
automatics in supposed BMW sporting machinery, so no more here on that -- I
was right, though.

Anyway, as such, what the consensus is about Bangle styling is irrelevant to
sales of BMW cars. We are out of touch with their mass market. We represent
a small niche that they can safely afford to ignore...and will. Let's face
it, ugly or not, what else will you buy once you have a BMW Jones?


GRL

"Ramone Cila" > wrote in message
...
> In it's last year the 3 series is down about 4% year to date. In terms of
> market performance...what a product! The A4 is down 10% year to date and

the
> C Class is down 3% but selling far fewer units that the E46.
>
> The 5 is doing great and appears be the second best 5 series year (2003

E39
> being the best) ever, and despite having two full months to go is already
> better than the first full year of E39 sales. The E-Class still outsells
> everybody in this segment in the US. They are down for the month but up

for
> the year. The A6 is way off track and down 20% year to date.
>
> 7 sales are down 19% for YTD but so is the market. Merc S Class sales are
> down 37% for the month and 12% for the year. By comparison Audi sells very
> few A8's..but their numbers are up about 68% 2004 vs. 2003.
>
> Z4's are off 2003 numbers by 23%, But so is everyone else's roadster
> numbers. There may be too much competition for the market levels. By
> comparison Boxster numbers are off by 37% for 2004 vs. 2003. TT's off 31%,
> SLK's off 17%.
>
> Production must have ramped up for the 6 because like the 5 those sales
> numbers are growing.
>
> 2004 X5/X3 combo has outdone the 2003 X5 numbers by 23,000+ year to date.
> And given the sales figures for the sedans it sure doesn't seem like many

of
> those buyers were cannibalized from the 3 and 5 series cars. No one else
> comes close to BMW in success with an SUV, but Porsche is selling the

living
> crap out of the Cayenne.
>
> If my math is worth a **** BMW is having their best year ever and

outselling
> Merc in the US. Despite all the commotion over design and i-drive BMW is
> doing great. And where BMW is suffering unit sales losses in certain
> segments, so are their competitors, which seems to indicate it is the
> market, rather than anyone's particular offering, that is dictating the
> those reduced sales.
>
> Despite bad press about design and almost constant criticism in forums

like
> this, BMW can only be happy about their performance this year and
> particularly ecstatic about their performance compared to competitors in
> various market segments that are suffering across the board.
>
> Unlike some of the posters on this ng, I am really happy to see BMW

selling
> cars and pumping money.
>
> http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cf...008/bmw/1.html
>
> http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cf...porsche/1.html
>
> http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cf...ercedes/1.html
>
> http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cf...06/Audi/1.html
>
> http://www.e60.net/information/ click "US Unit Sales"
>
>
>
>



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