German Car Zone

On today's press conference BMW AG chief executive officer, Herr Norbert Reithofer, announced X6 had been already sold out for this year. No specific figure wasn't given though.

BMW plan to produce 40k units in average in a full production year during the product's lifecycle.

for all world production or just US?
Amazing for a pointless car.

Worldwide of course!

40k annual production quota is also for worldwide markets. US sales will be approx 50% of that (approx 20k in a whole year).


That just confirms people just love "pointless" things (incl. "pointless" cars).
It's not a novelty (especially in the marketing world) it's all about satisfying the DESIRES & PHANTASIES, NOT THE NEEDS.

It a highly premium SUV for a well known manufacturer so it's not surprising that it's selling. Everybody was jumping all over the Cayenne and RR Sport when they were introduced as well. It's all normal.

Long as one realizes that this means that the dealers have requested/ordered them, not that they're actually "sold" to real people yet. That said I don't doubt they'll sell briskly for the first 18 months or so....kinda like the CLS.

M

Mind that in most the other markets (excl. US) sales are done by-the-order (by individual customers), and not of-the-lot (where dealers actually buy new cars from the BMW, and resale them to the individual customers).

US market is specific in this regard since still a lot of cars are sold of-the-lot, therefore US sales are actually "sales to the dealers", while elsewhere the sales is recorded as "delivery to the customer" / "new car registration".

Of course I'm only talking about the U.S market. Though I seriously doubt that the other 20k units are all custom orders Eni. Please don't try to make this very common occurrence into something it isn't.

Just in general there is no way "sales" from around the world are counted as actual registrations or delivered to customers Eni. That would mean every BMW dealer in the world would have to report back in a matter of days as to what they sold last month. When BMW and every other carmaker gives their world sales numbers it is numbers of units delievered to their dealers, not put in customers hands.


M

Yes, and what I'm saying not all the rest of the world is like the US market you are familiar with.

Of course dealer can still order few units for "on-the-lot" inventory. But mostly (at least in Europe) custom orders are performed, and delivery to the dealer in most cases means delivery to the final customer. Of course there is a few day delay since dealer has to prepare the car for the customer. But nevertheless - the car is already sold.


Early introduction of "next year MY" (usually already in the first months of current year) in the US market is an aftermath of intensive "of-the-lot" sales - since cars sits on the lot longer, even months. Not in BMW case though.

I'm not talking about out of the lot inventory or whatever. All I'm saying is that BMW, like every other carmaker in the world, when telling you what they've "sold" for a month or whatever is what they shipped to their dealers. Independent reports might track registrations, but BMW, MB, Toyota, Honda, etc. etc. don't when they're issuing their sales press releases.

When a vehicle is "sold" out it means that the dealer body has ordered all of them. Same thing with Smart and other other hot item right now.

BMW is no different in this regard. If in Europe it "usually" means that an order placed to the dealer is sold directly to a customer then BMW needs to issue 2 press releases, one that tallies deliveries and one that tallies sales. There is no way to differeniate between the two which is why every carmaker, when issuing a statement about sales goes by delieveries doesn't matter where it is.

BMW is no different Eni.


Mercedes, Audi, Lexus and all the other luxury car makers sell a lot of custom orders here in the U.S. also. Look on MBWorld and see how many people place and order for a car built to their specific specs. When such a car is delievered it is delivered right along with the all the rest, it isn't marked out as being anything different.


Most cars from any brand (except some U.S. brand who can't sell squat anyway) are sold within the month or so after they're shipped to the dealer, but the corporate press releases don't speak to that, only what is shipped to the dealer in the first place.

M

I can proudly say ..... I am among those happy owners ... Yesterday i got my car ....