German Car Zone

Let's stay realistic here, Tine. Don't you think your CM inbox would be full of these numbers if they would be even remotely good? Furthermore, M cars usually are produced in limited numbers at production start. For that reason, early customer orders are being disposed/approved for an production slot manually and centrally (= Munich and/or Spartanburg, SC). Don't act like these numbers aren't available at the right person's fingertip.


Best regards,
south

Results for the M division don't get disclosed. The most information that we'd get is the total sales and if we're lucky, the sales breakdown according to product line.

If you want detailed information such as sales vs budget/forecast, profitability etc. try and get a job at BMW's finance department.

I wasn't talking about in depth figures. I'm only talking about sales figures, not exactly a business secret like you seem to suggest.


Best regards,
south

The cars went for sale in very late August in US! Today it's September 27th ... Figure it out why no sales numbers available yet.

No to mention that in Europe & rest of the world the sales starts in October!!!!

I CAN'T GIVE YOU SALES NUMBERS FOR CARS THAT ARE NOT FOR SALE YET!

Get it?

Also M sales are very hard to get - they usually just issue an annual sales report - no monthly reports. Even the BMW Financial reports do not include separate M sales usually - only sales per series (incl. M models).

No, figures that are not there are very hard to present.

I guess we will get to know very soon if the initial sales are going as expected.

No need to get defensive. We both know that there are more ways to tell this than from official sales figures (which - like you say - don't exist for M division cars). Production schedules, BMW rent offers and unusual marketing activities are only some of them. But it's fine that you still insist on saying that there's no way to tell yet. Let's just wait some months and see. I'll happily admit that I were wrong in case these M models turn out to be a success. I hope you'll do the same in case I'm right. Unfortunately, all current signs seem to indicate so, but how could we know this right now...


Best regards,
south

Matter of fact is it looks like BMW M will "just" become just another performance division.. the passion is gone from what I feel about that article, all they want is to make money, which unfortunately is the one and only goal for any corporations nowadays. For example the M3 being a GT isn't a problem, but at least make a version that is not just a heavy GT, but they axed it. Agree you have to milk the cow sometimes, like a X6M, which i think is OK given Porsche makes something similar, but Porsche also make real sports cars. BUT i mean, the E9x M3 is a good enough track car for the current competition, but of course being BMW, would've expected something "for real". And no R8 answer, that's just a blow imo, we have the world's biggest luxury brand (is this still true?), also famous for their sports car heritage, NOT having one of these glamorous exotic sports cars.

Audi has passed BMW in many markets...

I was at a newly opened Audi dealer here in Stockholm today. By the entrance was an R8 V10 and just up the escalator was a R8 V8 and three white TT-RS. Damn, impressive stuff. With showrooms like this:



And cars like the above mentioned inside, it is no surprize Audi is doing well nowadays.

I'm still baffled as to why people are discussing these subjects with ENI yet he claims not to work for BMW or have any links to them on a professional level.

His posts come across like his the head of BMW every one of it's divisions! Very confusing. Either he really does work for BMW or he just likes doing it for fun and in his spare time.