MINI USA Sales Steady for April
MINI USA’s April sales edged down by 11%. Both the hardtop and Clubman sold less year over year with sales down 22% and 36% as compared to the previous year. The Countryman also down but just off 10%. But if you look closer at the numbers, sales are practically identical to last year due to this April having three less days in the month to sell cars.
Full chart after the break.
Interestingly this is our first real month to compare coupe and roadster sales with both cars now being fully on the market. The Coupe lead the race in April with 290 sold compared to the 258 for the Roadster. Interestingly the Convertible sold 521 units in the same time period.
Year-to-date, MINI sales in the U.S. are up 6.0 percent on volume of 19,911 compared to 18,787 in the first four months of 2011.
<p>Any particular reason why? </p>
<p>Fiat 500. </p>
<p>3849 sold in April. It is sucking buyers away from the core MINI “hardtop” models. The Coupe and Roadster are just noise. </p>
<p> I can see the 500 siphoning some hardtop sales, but am not so sure people are / would be cross-shopping it against the Clubman or Countryman… Would’ve thought people buying the “bigger” models would want/need the extra space.</p>
<p>Haven’t seen a roadster on the road yet. Could count on one hand the number of coupes I’ve seen (actually just saw my first non-S coupe yesterday). Wonder if there’s the possibility that the “polarizing” looks of the new models combined with MINI’s marketing focus on them is giving some people an unfavorable impression of MINI styling and keeping them from considering the brand when shopping…</p>
<p>Not sure FIAT is “sucking” that many sales away as their total sales picture for last year sucked. I am buying a Abarth having owned 3 MINIs and see nothing MINI is offering for me. The FIAT dealerships they call them “studios” have a long way to go to catch MINI as does the webstore configurator which totally sucks. But I’ve noticed the online store just had an update so we’ll see.</p>
<p>I was amazed to find that the 500 is almost the same size in length and width as my R53? If you just look at them it [500] looks really small. It has a bigger trunk and interior space feels bigger? Fit and finish very nice. One thing I don’t like… seats don’t have much vertical + or – and the passenger seat is static? I have yet to drive one as the dealerships are being very stingy with them as they have almost none.</p>
<p>Sad to say I’m leaving MINI as I thought I’d be a MINI owner for life. They changed, so did I.</p>
<p>BTW… I’ve never seen more that 2 people at FIAT in all the time I’ve been dealing with them, mostly it’s a graveyard.</p>
<p>According to autoblog, there were 24 selling days in April compared to 27 selling days in April 2011. 11.1% fewer selling days, and 11.1% fewer sales.</p>
<p> Exactly. The daily sales rate was the same for April 2012 and April 2011, at 239 units.</p>
<p>Don;t think that is a valid explination – Audi, Volkswagon, and Mercedes set sales records, BMW was up 12% – most other brands had modest gains, but weakness in the luxury brands.</p>
<p>I’m guessing we’re starting to see the Countryman cannibalize some sales from the Clubman? Makes you wonder if the Clubman is not long for this earth…</p>
<p>Not starting, but continuing. Clubman numbers have dropped precipitously since even before the Countryman hit the market, leading up to its debut. The Clubman remains in MINI’s long-term lineup forecast, however. Because it’s based on the same platform as the other R5X cars, it doesn’t have to sell in large numbers to be viable, just like the Coupe and the Roadster. Look for the Hardtop and the Countryman to continue as overall sales leaders for the foreseeable future, which is a good thing. Steady sales of those foundation models is what makes all the variants possible.</p>
<p>MINI is definantly off the current US trends. SMART was up 60%+, Mercedes outsold BMW, VW grew as did many others. Volvo, Caddilac, Buick and a couple others were down. But then, most of the statistical analysis is done on SAAR, or the Seasonally Adjusted Anual Rate, that takes into acount varying differences in year to year sales days in a month. If you want to see a overview of US wide numbers, you can take a look here: <a href="http://wardsauto.com/blog/april-us-sales-validate-q1-results It's" rel="nofollow ugc">http://wardsauto.com/blog/april-us-sales-validate-q1-results It's</a> the “Counting Cars” column at Wards…. NADA has good numbers too, but they don’t have the April numbers up yet…. <a href="http://www.nada.org/Publications/NADADATA/monthly_sales_recap/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.nada.org/Publications/NADADATA/monthly_sales_recap/</a></p>
<p>Matt</p>
<p>Ok. Let me give you all some insider info into. this. At least here in CT. it is not the Fiat 500 making any kind of inroads into our sales. It is all about production. A lot of cars that were expected to arrive didn’t. Get ready for MINI’s best May ever if all of the cars expected to arrive do. Sales are not always exactly what the numbers tell you. May is going to be NUTS!!!</p>
<p>did anyone read the Abarth vs. Coupe S MT review?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/hatchbacks/1204_2012_fiat_500_abarth_vs_2012_mini_cooper_s_coupe/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/hatchbacks/1204_2012_fiat_500_abarth_vs_2012_mini_cooper_s_coupe/</a></p>
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