Comments on: MINI USA Sales Down 6.7% for September

By: Dr Obnxs

Dr Obnxs — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:45:43 +0000

It'll be interesting to see what's up. 6 day supply is still very small. It may be a blip or it may be a trend, a couple more months will tell.

I'm hoping that this will signal the end of markups. We just got a base Clubman from Mini of the Hamptons, in part because Mini of Mountain View was still charging markups! MotH only had one unsold car on the lot, a pretty base JCW coupe. Every other car was factory order for quite a while. Another clubbie that was there was getting prepped to be shipped to San Diego!

Matt

By: C4

C4 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:21:32 +0000

The party is over, folks. Now we will be going back to the days when cash was king (Pre-1980's) and credit cards/easy credit lines were a rarity reserved for the privileged few.

These grim economics times may actually be a "blessing in disguise". First, people will start to live within or below their means, the days of carrying large sums of revolving credit card debt may become a memory in the not so distant future. People will have to truly save and earn the money if they want to purchase a car or a house.

Another bonus from this economic crisis..... Finally "We the people" will have come to our senses and throw out the bums currently in power come November.

By: GregW

GregW — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:01:38 +0000

This is the reason BMW differs to Porsche. BMW wants to be a volume car-maker but with a luxury premium product which returns fat-profit margins to dealers. That has now changed.
Whereas Porsche make a limited premium product with fat margins. Apart from the Cayenne and new Panamera? they have stuck to their roots and design. BMW can't have it both ways in times of recession. Best case scenario is to have demand outstripping supply.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:12:38 +0000

Sales always fall as summer ends & people feel that back-to-school money pinch. The credit crunch & economic uncertainty definitely hasn’t helped either. It’s just a cyclic thing with help.

By: lavardera

lavardera — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:56:49 +0000

They did quite well since most manufacturers slipped 20-30% because of credit tightening and energy costs. If they had more verts on hand the numbers would have been higher too.

By: gokartride

gokartride — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:37:09 +0000

Yeah, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!!!

By: JonPD

JonPD — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:55:24 +0000

I would say Mr. McDowell’s comments are part of the issue. Would bet the severe tightening of the credit market isn’t helping either.

By: rhawth99

rhawth99 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:01:07 +0000

Despite McDowell's disclaimers, I doubt that even MINI is immune to the current economic downturn. Princeton MINI actually had new MINIs on the lot and the online inventory shows many more MINIs than this summer. Yes, I know that the online inventory includes vehicles ordered by customers - my point is that both the online inventory and the lot were barren this summer.

The days of selling every MINI they could get with little or no effort may finally be gone which could be good news for folks that wish to dicker.

By: Ian C.

Ian C. — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:28:34 +0000

As we can see on the sales chart I maintain, this month's sales are still above most months since 2002 ...