MINI USA Sales down 23% for October
October Year-on-Year sales of the 2 Door Hardtop dropped almost 50% compared to 2014. This is a huge number as it’s usually close to or the strongest seller of the whole lineup. The fact that the 4 doors (Hardtop 4 door plus Countryman) grew almost 10% couldn’t overcome the surprising drop in the 2 Door hardtop sales. Overall, the year-on-year monthly sales are still up 10%.
But the rest of the industry faired a little better. Overall light vehicle sales October numbers were up 13.6% Heck, Smart and Scion were up (23.2% and 13% respectively), and even the fraudulent VW brand was up slightly, 0.9%. This is despite VW’s screwing up our air, and tons of their customers (VW seems to have kept sales up by really, really incentivising dealers, and offering huge discounts.) MINI joins BMW, Bentley, Maserati, Lincoln, Buick and Jaguar as the only brands with negative October numbers.
Official Release: Woodcliff Lake, NJ – November 3, 2015…
MINI Brand Sales
For October, MINI USA reports 4,087 automobiles sold, a decrease of 22.9 percent from the 5,300 sold in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date, MINI USA sales are 49,061 vehicles, a 10.3 percent increase from the same period last year.
MINI Pre-Owned Vehicles
- In October, sales of MINI NEXT (certified pre-owned) set an October record with 999 vehicles, up 43.1 percent over October 2014, with a year-to-date gain of 26.2 percent to 9,828 cars over the same period in 2014.
- Total MINI Pre-Owned sales also set an October record with 2,248 cars, an increase of 19.0 percent from October 2014.
- Total MINI Pre-Owned sales for the first ten months were 22,593, a 7.8 percent increase from the same period in 2014.
<p>smart up 23% makes some sense since they FINALLY updated the car. How many units are we actually talking about though? Looks like it’s a pretty big upgrade over the old version.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of competition out there these days. MINI’s cars are comparatively expensive. With each successive generation getting bigger and bigger there’s not as much differentiation as there used to be from what other manufacturers are putting out. And it seems like many MINI enthusiasts are not so enamored of the current generation.</p>
<p>read better “But year-to-date sales are still up over 10%, so MINI USA is still looking at a very good year”</p>
<p>But the point of this post is that for last month MINI is way down, especially compared to everyone else. And they asked for theories as to why.</p>
<p>You think that October 1st customers wake up and say “oh what a awful car”</p>
<p>6 other brands have negative numbers, so it’s a general trend</p>
<p>“read better “But year-to-date sales are still up over 10%, so MINI USA is still looking at a very good year”</p>
<p>Considering this year’s total unit sales will only be useful when comparing it to years prior to 2014, a year that was characterized by a hamstrung F56 rollout.</p>
<p>The nut to crack is 2013’s record 305,030 world wide units.</p>
<p>Given that 2015 saw the 5-door rollout and the F56 at full production, total unit sales that only bests 2013 by just a bit is a solid indication that…well, I’ll leave it there, Nick Denton ;-)</p>
<p>I didn’t realize the next gen Smart was already on sale in the US.</p>
<p>Really curious as to just what happened to the f56 this month. Sure there are some purists that aren’t enamored with the changes, but those changes are old news now. Did someone tell everyone that I took the MINI JCW off my short list for a BMW m235i? Maybe that’s it.</p>
<p>It’s understandable that the 2 door would lose sales now that a 4 door is offered. The really bad news is the 40% drop in the Countryman sales. Is it due to the explosion of the “Cute Ute” segment?</p>
<p>If October is a one month anomaly, nothing to see here… if the balance of 2015 looks like this perhaps that is more cause for concern.</p>
<p>From a YTD perspective for MINI 4-door vehicles (countryman + 4 door hardtop) vs. countryman sales last year, it is nearly 26k units in ’15 vs. 19k units in ’14.</p>
<p>That said, the 4 door hardtop is eating into both the 2 door hardtop and countryman sales, will be interesting to see how the 3rd 4 door MINI (clubman) fares against the first two (and does it further eat away at the 2 door hardtop).</p>
<p>I think the Clubman will draw a lot of new people to the brand as it is really quite a bit more useable than either the 4-door or the Countryman. It may also result in more sales from people who love the brand, but for whom the hardtops are no longer practical.</p>
<p>I really wonder. I bet quite a few will look at it and proclaim it to be a wagon. Wagons are not exactly hot sellers in the US. I bet it will sell better in Europe.</p>
<p>Well, I’m sure it will sell better in Europe because Americans prefer cute Utes with zero redeeming qualities over wagons, but this may just help make wagons cool again. Think about how many hatchbacks there were that weren’t bottom-of-the-barrel crapboxes even just a few years ago. The answer is not very many. Hopefully there’s a resurgence for wagons, but we’ll see. That being said, it’s not as if the whole country has to like wagons for this to be a sales success. They don’t need to sell Camry-level amounts to meet MINIs goals, I assume.</p>
<p>BMW made this generation so much more bland than past generations with the hope to capture a larger share of the market. I’m sure I would be driving a Mini F5X if it hadn’t become so heavy, unattractive and lacking that special feel that made MINI so wonderful. They should ditch the 2.0T and crank up the power in the 1.5T for S and JCW models. The 4-door just has the most awkward proportions and the framed doors make an already strange car even weirder looking. The clubman is too expensive. The tens or hundreds of millions of dollars BMW has spent developing this new clubman will take a lot of sales to make up in profit. They think by charging an arm and a leg will help recoup losses faster but I doubt many will find its styling, performance credentials or fuel economy ratings exciting when the price tag is shown. $40K for a middle of the road S Clubman is going to be a hard sale.</p>
<p>Something is going on. Last moth, up 4.6% but the light vehicle fleet was up about 15%…. This month down, but the light vehicle fleet is up another 15%. Now, Year-on-Year numbers are noisy for a lot of reasons.</p>
<p>One thing that may be in play is as gas prices drop, larger vehicles sell much better. People stop worrying about the cost of running the car (or truck or SUV).</p>
<p>Personally, I think a lot has to do with model release schedules, the shift to CUVs, cheap gas, and better competition. Spiffs (Stands for Sales Promotion Incentive Fund, or payouts from the factory to get cars sold) upped the GTIs almost 50% in October. It’s a good car for sure, and getting paid to buy one has to help tons.</p>
<p>MINI really only can look to model release schedules and SPIFFs to change sales. And they haven’t really done spiffs much in the past. Cheap gas and competition are things they don’t control. Time will tell if it’s a blip or a trend….</p>
<p>“Personally, I think a lot has to do with…”</p>
<p>Yep. MINI is being confronted from all sides, and the Company’s reaction seems to have been to abandon its initial brilliance.</p>
<p>My biggest beef with the bigger MINI strategy – spanning every single model introduction and model refresh – is that MINI’s arguably leaving the playing field they entered on wide open (e.g. see Fiat’s sales growth) when higher fuel prices and the public’s desire for a truly small platform returns. And this is not a question of if, but when.</p>
<p>Unfortunately these sales figures point to the big issues with the F5x models. People have finally woken up to the poor styling choices made in the new generation, the pricing has grown even further bulbous and the cars lost that special zing that people were drawn to in the first two models… true driver fun. It’s not surprising to me. I’ve seen it said all over before but whomever has said it on here before either got blocked or chewed out by the masses of new MINI owners. I’m sorry but people aren’t excited about this new product. Sales have remained flat at best and for a new model to be losing sales compared to sales of the R56 when it had already been available 5 years has to be a huge disappointment to BMW. Maybe this will wake them up to the fact that people want those things back in both BMW and MINI Models that each brand was built on -performance, quality, style and relative affordability. Also throw in some innovation! Where’s the trick electronically controlled diff or higher power base and S engine? At near 3000lbs these cars need more power and something like VW’s eDiff to pull them through the curves and get the most of their power down. JCW was slower than a GTI at this year’s Lightening Lap and the review was not very positive about the cars actual handling prowess either. I think BMW made a huge mistake moving to the b48 engine. The N18 had loads of potential, higher fuel economy ratings and sounded better off the showroom floor. B48 moved to artifical sound, lost the lag free yet high-rev capabilities and is strapped into a car with a much more restrictive exhaust and extra weight. I hope BMW and MINI and the mini owners realize that something has to change soon. The new clubbie is going to be a huge flop at its sky high price, lukewarm styling and absolutely ridiculous weight. I’m not holding out much hope for the MINI brand without a come to Jesus moment.</p>
<p>I don’t recognise the gloom and doom that you are portraying. MINI only needs to sell a further 32,212 cars globally this year – that’s an average of 16,106 a month over the next two months – to beat its 2013 best sales year of 305,030 cars. The average monthly sales for the ten months to date, however, amounts to 27,282 so at that rate MINI could potentially sell 327,384 cars this year. By any reckoning, F55 and F56 are a huge global success.</p>
<p>I am referring to US sales where they have not been exceptionally over and beyond what they were prior to the neutering that occurred with F5X generation.</p>
<p>I agree that the USA seems to be the exception to the current global rule, and 2015 is not likely to be a record year for MINI USA. Nevertheless, it’s too early to write off the F-Series MINIs in the US just yet. I suspect that 2016 will be a very different story, with F54, F57 and R60 all going on sale next year.</p>
<p>TOTAL ANNUAL MINI GLOBAL SALES vs TOTAL ANNUAL MINI USA SALES</p>
<p>2002: 144,119 vs 24,590 = 17.06% Global Market Share
2003: 176,465 vs 36,010 = 20.40%
2004: 184,357 vs 36,032 = 20.42%
2005: 200,428 vs 40,820 = 20.37%
2006: 188,077 vs 39,171 = 20.83%
2007: 222,875 vs 42,045 = 18.86%
2008: 232,425 vs 54,077 = 23.27%
2009: 216,538 vs 45,225 = 20.89%
2010: 234,175 vs 45,644 = 19.49%
2011: 285,060 vs 57,511 = 20.17%
2012: 301,526 vs 66,123 = 21.93%
2013: 305,030 vs 66,502 = 21.80%
2014: 302,183 vs 56,112 = 18.57%
2015: 272,819 vs 49,061 = 17.98% (10 Months YTD)</p>
<p>The problem is that for a brand that lost so much to become ‘something for everyone’ to just barely meet or exceed what it’s older sibling did in its 6th year of production, I think the managers at MINI and BMW AG will be scrambling around trying to see what happened. Look how fast sales grew up to 2014 when F5X was introduced. I would hope sales would be the best since they now have the 5-door but they aren’t really doing much in the grand scheme of things. I think the G5x models will be significantly revised to be more like R5x models. Either that or BMW will get rid of the money losing division that is MINI. THE only thing possibly preventing a huge loss with this generation is the shared platform, but we have not really seen the sales there for the God awful 2AT, OR new X1. If those models flop, UKL will probably be history.</p>