This news comes from Autoweek and it's sister publication Automotive News:
BMW's top U.S. executive says the company publicly downplayed its sales ambitions for Mini.
The Mini Cooper and the Mini Cooper S went on sale in March 2002, and 24,590 of the tiny cars were sold in the United States that year. U.S. sales reached 36,010 units in 2003, the first full calendar year of U.S. sales.
The official forecast was lower. “We were very careful with our enthusiasm,” says Tom Purves, president of BMW of North America LLC. He says BMW executives believed the Mini would reach at least the levels of the now-defunct BMW Z3 – between 18,000 and 20,000 a year. Worldwide, 175,000 Minis were sold last year.
Purves says the brand's sales success does not mean that BMW will step up exports of Minis, which are built in the United Kingdom, to the United States. He says overstocking would force BMW to offer incentives that would drag down residual values.
You can read the entire article here.
<p>How should we take that?</p>