BMW NA Selling Corporate MINI Dealer

Sections: Sales Sep 26th, 2008 25 Comments

With the current financial state of the US economy and the decline in sales of BMW models, BMWNA has watched sales dip for the first time in a long time. This comes at a time when the company has just invested in expanding its headquarters in NJ, along with other capital investments.

This past spring brought about a change in the used car market. Plummeting prices forced BMW to write down some of its losses. The losses continue due to the poor state of the market. With more cars to come off lease with inflated residuals, how can BMW offset these losses and the money they have already spent elsewhere? Easy: sell some of its more liquid assets.

BMWNA owns several top-performing dealerships in affluent areas that are not usually influenced by market conditions. For the past several months, we have heard rumors that at least one dealership was on the market. It is not only a BMW brand store, but also houses and has the rights to the other brands that encompass the BMW Group – specifically MINI.

You may be thinking to yourself, “How much can a dealership cost?” For a single brand store in a busy market, prices can reach $20 million or more. What this particular store will bring in is still up for debate, but there are several active suitors.

We have chosen to not go into too much detail while this situation continues to evolve. We will stick to that until things are finalized. After the recent news about allocations and jobs being cut, we thought that we should also inform you that BMW is seeking other cost cutting measures to help with the market conditions.

Written By: Michael

Mike B

A sad state of affairs for America, hopefully it will end sooner than later.
http://www.dcmetrominis.org JustJAY

Working on Capitol Hill, I can tell you that Congress and the Senate are taking this seriously and are really trying to figure out what is best. They don’t want to just throw something together and have it tail spin and make things even worse.
dr

I am looking forward to picking up a 3 series for a fantastic price.
callahan

Yeah but will you A: Be able to find a bank that is still lending money and B. Have a job to make the payments.

Policies and Practices of the last TWO administrations [Clinton and Bush] and Republican AND Demcratic controlled ocngress have gotten us to mess where we are now. Whatever you politcal affiliation is, it is time to stop pointing fingers and get this on trakc. Otherwise I’ll be telling my granchildren about the Great Depression of 2008. Who out there is pretty concerned right now?
BrewSwapGuy

I’m very worried but not panicked. The key is we haven’t hit bottom yet and we can’t rise until we do. As others have said, throw party affiliations out the door at this point. All that matters is now who is in office (or congress) but what they can do to improve the situation.
Rocketboy

That is by far the WORST written article on Motoringfile.

“BMW was forced to right down some of its losses”

right != write

“decline in sales of BMW models BMWNA has watched sales”

comma much?

“several dealerships throughout the country they are in affluent areas that”

Run on / Comma?

By no means is this an exhaustive list of errors. I’m certainly do not have a habit of being Nathan Nit-Picky, but come on, this is bloody awful.
JonPD

No surprise here and a pretty good move by BMW, guessing this is one of the BMW/Mini sites. I am sure somebody will snap this up if for no other reason than Mini dealerships can’t seem to keep enough cars on their lots due to demand.
Rocketboy

Why did I keep reading…

“You may be thinking to yourself how much can a dealership cost to buy?”

My brain is hurting trying to read this.
Aurel

That stinks! This sounds like its the Manhattan, NY dealership.
Craig

Wow! BMW-NA must really be hurting if they are willing to trade off long term profits for a one time cash payment.
http://blog.kurtcollins.com Krut

So Jay are sales up at the store?

I think this will sort itself out soon – I’m glad the house and senate are spending time to think through this issue – although they spent more time debating steroids in baseball.

As far as MINI goes – they’re being prudent to guarantee their longevity in the US – it’s their biggest market and they’re basically selling a fixed asset to cover more essential costs (think of the MINI-owned dealership as a summer cottage).
Fred

“By no means is this an exhaustive list of errors. Iâ€™m certainly do not have a habit of being Nathan Nit-Picky, but come on, this is bloody awful.”

“I’m certainly do not . . . ” (?)

“I’m certainly . . . but come on . . . ” (subject and voice change)

“. . . but come on, this is bloody awful.” (comma splice)
Rocketboy

Fred, this is why I’m not a Nathan Nit-Picky. Nor did I spend the time and effort one would expect in an article. I just expect my brain not to hurt after reading an article on Motoringfile.

Yes, the “I’m” is awful. It was a result of me editing as I was typing, and making the mistake of not proof reading. That, and it is a compound sentence.
http://www.matthewgifford.com/ Matt G.

I did some serious editing of the post. Please let me know if there are more rough spots to deal with.
Chris W.

Matt & Michael, thank you for the article.

Rocketboy, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
GregW

Good news – this is not a USA thing. BMW are reducing staff in all Subsidiaries around the world and even at Munich. It’s called both project MOVE and ONE strategy. A lot of loyal BMW employees are being hurt by this and being cut for the sake of shareholders and the Quandt family. Travel, Training, interns are being cut. People are now regarded as job cards and disposable resource. This could be a bold move to keep the Company at the top, but with increasing sales looks bad in anyones language.
http://www.lilcoopr.com lilcoopr

BMW Group Canada already did this years ago, and the dealership, the one that I work at, is even attached to the head office but is now under new non-corporate ownership.
Rocketboy

Chris… So, if an article on a website that you’ve been reading for years is not up to its normally high standards, it is impolite to bring it up? That there was a rather big cleanup is not an indication that there was a probelm?

Matt… Thanks. I hope you did not take what I wrote the wrong way, I was just disheartened to see a post like the first version slip through.
Angael

Is it really necessary to pick on someone through here and not privately? An email to Matt would have sufficed.

The market situation does have me worried some though, because my loan is up next year and I will need to refinance the loan.
Rocketboy

Angael.. Let’s see. No link to Mike on the page. No link to Matt on the page. Oh wait, a place to leave a reply down below. How nice.
http://www.motoringfile.com/ Gabe

Angael.. Letâ€™s see. No link to Mike on the page. No link to Matt on the page. Oh wait, a place to leave a reply down below. How nice.

That’s what the contact for is for – to leave suggestions and complaints. The comment section is intended to discussion about the story above.
Phil

I think it is Westchester BMW/MINI
alpinamike

Written By: Michael …who?
http://www.motoringfile.com/ O(=^=)O Capn

Contact MF, The discreet way of doing it.

Thanks love the site, I wish most paid sites were run as well as this free one! You guys Rock!

And, why does Michael need a last name? So you can look him up and throw eggs at his house?
http://Bimmerfile.com Michael

I apologize for the writing errors… I threw this together before I left for Munich. I was planning on editing it before it went live, needless to say I forgot while at Oktoberfest! Obviously, not one of my best posts.

On the other hand I think you can give me a bit of a break on this one… trying blogging and you will see how difficult it is to do with the rest of life going on!

In the future I will be sure not to schedule things to go live until I have completed them.

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