MINI a US Sales Leader?
Autoblog has a great report on the overall state of the automotive industry in the United States for the month of March. Some say it looks pretty grim, but they break it down correctly.
>Though many news outlets will decry March as a horrible sales month in the auto industry, it wasn’t that bad and there are some notable successes. The reason it isn’t as bad as some will tell you is because most outlets compare the volume of cars sold last month to the same month in 2007, rather than comparing the average number of cars sold per day. Since there were two extra selling days last year (28 vs. 26), looking at the raw numbers is very misleading.
Chrysler and GM actually fared the worst, which isn’t suprising to most of us. Also not surprising is MINI leading the pack, with overall sales being up 26.4%! The marque with the poorest performance was Hummer, showing a decrease of 23.3%. They have numbers for all brands except Subaru and Suzuki.
As for the parent companies, BMW had a 3rd place finish with an increase of 1.8%, right behind Nisssan and Honda.
[ By the Numbers: March 2008 ] Autoblog
Nothing to surprising, the manufactures building primarily large vehicles are suffering in the time of $4 gas. Even BMW’s SUV sales are down, this is part of what makes me wonder the intelligence of building a Mini SUV.
Finally bought my first Mini just a few weeks ago in March. There did appear to be a “slowdown” in sales at my dealership, but still not enough for them to break down and start making huge deals.
There is no intelligence in it Jon. Car manufacturers do stupid things on a consistent basis and keep repeating the same mistakes. Look back in history (I’m too lazy to cite the source).
Of course sales are down. Hell most people are struggling to meet the rising payment of their ARM, so they can stay in their McMansion. BMW is not the only company who has seen sales drop.
Every human who uses gasoline or diesel (except the middle-easterners who buy gas for $.20/gal.) should be protesting the hell out of the oil companies and the government. Why should we let those bastards dictate what kind of cars we drive?
A mini “SAV” would be quite small to begin with next to most other SUV’s, so more than likely it won’t weigh as much requiring less fuel. I think it’s unwise for BMW to put so much emphasis on the SUV market here shifting X3 production to SC, the SUV market is slowing down, not accelerating nor is it growing anymore. Small cars and hybrids is where future growth is at for car sales.
So are Hummer buyers switching to MINIs? 😉
BMW isn’t shifting to SUV’s or “SAV’s”. Their maximizing their dollars against the Euro. This is a tough business man.
Don’t get me wrong guys, a Mini SUV will not be a monster sized vehicle. I personally think Mini choose a very predictable path which is sad for a company that proved it thinks out of the box with its products. Think they could have chosen other paths such as hybrids and have done much better than a SUV will.
Pretty sure if the details are looked at small cars in general are up and large vehicles are down.
and how are small suv’s? up or down?
The car industry is hurting pretty badly. The MINI isn’t exactly a cheap car either. However, it does offer a fuel frugal, premium alternative to lesser offerings in the market.
I have owned a Clubman for a little over a month now. I get tons of stares from SUV and Pick up truck drivers. People roll down their windows at stop lights to ask questions about the car.
The Clubman is really creating a lot of buzz out there. Why? Because until recently, many people that liked the MINI did not buy it because the car was perceived as to be too small and impractical. The Clubman addresses those shortcomings in many people’s minds, hence why the car is selling briskly.
Will MINI increase Clubman production? I doubt it. I think they should avoid falling on the R56 trap of making more cars than the market could bear. Now MINI is in a comfortable position with the Clubman. Low production, high demand.
>I think they should avoid falling on the R56 trap of making more cars than the market could bear
someone should tell that to my local dealer which seems to never have more than 15-20 cars at a time. Often the lot only has baout 7-10. Heck, they ran OUT of MINIs a couple months ago.
Lets get things into perspective – how many people are there is the USA vs the number of MINIs sold?
Isn’t the biggest selling model a Pickup truck?
The reason sales were up was simply because of the introduction of the Clubman. The regular cooper sales were down just slightly with Clubman sales about 40% of the coupe. that pretty much is the company’s entire uptick. BMW also said sales were up 17.3% for MINI.
Cooper Hardtop 2,752 2,940 -6.4%
Cooper Convertible 472 715 -34.0%
Cooper Clubman 1,065 0
MINI brand 4,289 3,655 17.3%