Worldwide MINI Sales Down 9.2% in September
Worldwide MINI sales continued their downward trend in September with a decrease of 9.2% compared to last year. For the year sales at MINI declined slightly in the first three quarters, with a total of 265,935 (-2.0%) vehicles delivered to customers worldwide.
What’s the reason for the downturn? Global instability due to tariffs and even Brexit are some of it. There’s also a global trend in key markets (China and the US) away from smaller cars and towards crossovers. Finally there’s the increased competition from all sides.
What are your thoughts? Dealers – are you feeling this as well? Let us know in the comments below.
<p>Pllleaaaassseee, Gabriel!!! This has NOTHING to do with Brexit or with Donald Trump’s global trade policies. Those are in fact the solutions to make MINI great again (probably with a Canyonero-sized Countryman on the Cullinan platform). 😉
<em>light-hearted sarcasm</em></p>
<p>I work at a dealer in California, and we barely sell them anymore. There just isn’t anything exciting about the car anymore….especially with our BMW dealership next door. I know most auto groups would be ok with ditching the brand at this point.</p>
<p>Actually, the MINI Countryman is currently enjoying all time record sales in the US with sales up 1.5% in September and up 33.7% YTD.</p>
<p>The countryman is by far the most popular model, but in general is one of the few MINI models that ever sells.</p>
<p>That’s interesting, because in the first nine months of 2018, MINI USA sold a total of 34,193 MINIs, of which only 14,142 were the F60 Countryman. Sales of the F54/F55/F56/F57 accounted for the remaining 20,051 MINI sales.</p>
<p>It may be different here in California, but I can tell you from our numbers that is what we are seeing.</p>
<p>Thanks for that. The only MINI – other than the Countryman – in positive sales territory in the US YTD, is the Convertible. How well does the Convertible sell in your dealership in sunny California?</p>
<p>welp, i guess that’s what they get for making cars worse in reliability then american cars (didn’t know that was possible).</p>
<p>i’ve personally been looking to buy a new one but lawd have mercy doing my research it’s just one horror story after another with these things.</p>
<p>Yeah, look at Jeep. The Wrangler is red hot but is usually at the bottom of the reliability ratings. The brand new model seem to have a problem with broken welds.</p>
<p>I wish the coupe had not just looked cool and fast, but had actually been materially faster than the hatch.</p>
<p>I wish the paceman had not just looked cool and fast, but had actually been materially faster than the countryman.</p>
<p>I wanted to buy those models but couldn’t get over the form with little function.</p>
<p>The brand has so much promise. I hope it finds a path to incredible sales.</p>
<p>MINI doesn’t currently have a new model that I want to buy, but I keep watching for something that gets me excited again. Like a rocketperson built with GWG. Or an electric superleggera. Or even just a hatch with more traditional proportions. That’s all coming, right?</p>
<p>September’s worldwide fall in car sales is not a problem affecting just MINI, it is a global problem affecting almost all auto manufacturers, and is entirely due to the WTLP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) which came into effect on September 1.</p>
<p>In Europe, overall car sales were down 23% in September, with Germany being the hardest hit with a decline of 31% compared to the UK where car sales were down overall 21%.</p>
<p>China is having its own problems and car sales dropped 11.6% in September, and were the lowest for seven years, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Friday. It cited a sluggish economy, deleveraging and a tough pollution crackdown as reasons for the steep fall.</p>
<p>Even in the USA – which is currently enjoying an unexpectedly strong economy – overall car sales were down 5.5% in September, with MINI sales down 7.4% and BMW passenger car sales down 9.2%. Sales of the BMW X1, however, were down 17.9% whereas sales of the MINI Countryman were up 1.5%.</p>
<p>Any thought on why the Countryperson is bucking the US sales tend?</p>
<p>I think it’s simply that the Countryman is the right car at the right time for the US market. There are lots of good SAV/Crossovers on sale right now, but most of them look much the same. The MINI, however, has its own distinctive look. It’s also smaller, lighter and cheaper than the X1 with which it shares it’s underpinnings.</p>
<p>That makes good sense. Thanks!</p>
<p>While your data is correct, you applying it to MINI or BMW Group to explain MINI’s downward spiral is false.</p>
<p>BMW Group concluded the homologation for WLTP of its entire range already in June 2018, 3 months early before the UN’s new global test cycle came into effect on 1 September. If at all, people unable to purchase Mercedes or VW or Audi small cars because of WLTP delays on their side should flock to MINI in droves.</p>
<p>Your comment re Chinese market contraction affecting MINI to such extent as to reasonably explain its sales downturn verges on the gratuitous: how many vehicles did BMW Group sell in PRC in all of 2017? 560,000 vehicles?
How many of these were MINIs? 35,000. China is currently a non-market for MINI, and that will only change with the next generation, with production facilities and R&D establishing a new MINI identity for thr world there.</p>
<p>As for the US, MINI seems to not be too buoyed by Donald Trump’s resurrection of America. The stronger and more nationalistic the US economy, the less US buyers will go for premium and smaller economical foreign cars. Buy American!</p>
<p>Please read my comment again – nowhere within it do I apply the data to “explain MINI’s downward spiral”. I am simply highlighting the fact that September global car sales have fallen for almost all global car makers including the previously robust Chinese car market.</p>
<p>Even with BMW getting in early with WTLP, the group only just managed a tiny 0.2% increase in sales in September. The fall from grace of the Diesel engine, however, has had a significant short term effect on MINI sales.</p>
<p>As for the on-going decline in MINI USA sales, we all know the reasons for that and there is no point in repeating those again here, except to reiterate that the Countryman is enjoying its highest ever US sales YTD and even managed a 1.5% increase in September.</p>
<p>Despite Gabriel’s opening statement, “Worldwide MINI sales continued their downward trend in September”, MINI has in fact been achieving record breaking year on year worldwide sales, right up until H1 this year. I shall be most interested to hear your explanation for MINI’s sudden fall in global sales for the month of September?</p>
<p>Your comment opens with setting MINI’s sales decline in a contextual correlation to global car sales, which you then explain as “entirely due” to WLTP.</p>
<p>You then expand about other global market trends as if in alignment with MINI’s trend lines but which are clearly unrelated.</p>
<p>I am glad you didn’t forget to throw in “Look, Diesel issues!” in your second post, which actually don’t matter re. US or Chinese markets either.</p>
<p>I appreciate that you like to use “plausible deniability” to be always right when people say “hang on a minute” to your “authoritative statements”, but this doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.</p>
<p>I know what BMW Group internally thinks are the reason for MINI’s decline. That’s all that matters, because this informs Munich’s steps to keep the brand alive at this stage. Spinning MINI away from its current and up-to-now near-term ties with BMW platforms and move it onto dedicated China-origin platforms at scale will re-define what MINI is about in 2023/4. I am really excited about where German management is now taking MINI. There will even be a proper role for Oxford, adjusting to the reality of where Britain is heading over the next decade.</p>
<p>I am very upbeat about MINI, and most folks who like how the brand was in the early 2000s will agree once this gets more public. Trust me.</p>
<p>Hang on a minute – I make it quite clear that, “China, however, is having its own problems”, and clearly I am not parcelling it up with the WLTP fiasco, and neither am I doing so with the USA, but rather I am simply pointing out that despite the overall drop in USA car sales in September, MINI USA is enjoying all-time record sales with the Countryman.</p>
<p>I do, however, stand four-square behind my assertion that WLTP is entirely to blame for the 9.2% drop in MINI’s global sales in September, and for the disappointing performance of the BMW Group overall in September, as well as all the other major European car makers.</p>
<p>Despite my invitation to you to provide me with your alternative explanation for MINI’s sudden fall in global sales for the month of September, you have failed to do so, except to say rather majestically, “I know what BMW Group internally thinks are the reason for MINI’s decline”.</p>
<p>May I take this opportunity to say that I too am excited about the direction in which BMW is taking the next generation MINI, and to its future plans to keep Plant Oxford commercially viable over the coming decade.</p>
<p>Okay, so now it is after all your “…assertion that WLTP is entirely [!!!] to blame for the 9.2% drop in MINI’s global sales in September…” even though WLTP is not an issue for BMW Group, as per BMW Group’s official statement in June. In fact, backlog orders from pre-June should uplift deliveries and/or sales… unlike for VW Group, where you won’t be able to place orders for entire ranges of vehicles competing with MINI for another 6 months.</p>
<p>When I log into the BMW production back end, there are several production slots that can be secured for a bespoke MINI order prior to EoY delivery in the EU. Same for BMW vehicles, such as one X3 slot remaining. So: neither capacity ceilings nor product unavailabilities (=WLTP) are the root cause of the down trend.</p>
<p>I like how close you come to the “Pudel’s Kern” (as the German language has as saying) with your “majestic” reference. It’s actually hilarious 😀 . Ciao, Nick.</p>
<p>I am so pleased that I made you laugh – that’s OK with me :)</p>
<p>Despite, “even though WLTP is not an issue for BMW Group, as per BMW Group’s official statement in June”, BMW and MINI total European sales were down in September 2018 and YTD 2018, compared to 2017:</p>
<p>BMW & MINI EUROPE TOTAL SALES 2017 vs 2018</p>
<p>Sept 2017 = 119,474
Sept 2018 = 113,620</p>
<p>YTD 2017 = 815,681
YTD 2018 = 815,460</p>
<p>Surprisingly, bearing in mind that you profess to be the fount of knowledge on all things BMW, you still haven’t explained why BMW/MINI Europe September sales were so poor. You are failing to take into account the knock-on effect of WLTP on sales during August/September for all European car makers.</p>
<p>“… and most folks who like how the brand was
in the early 2000s will agree once this gets more public. Trust me.”
Yes please.</p>
<p>What about base equipment/options comparing with cars that buyers could like. Mini dying playing the elite product they are not.</p>
<p>If MINI had competitive products they’d be selling more of them. MINI has always been niche, but when you take away what made the brand appealing to a subset of the market, namely the performance first nature you lose interest from those buyers. The slowdown of MINI USA sales started literally at the time the F56 was released. It’s just never been well received after it lost its timeless style and performance. It also hurts that it is rated lower MPG than just about any other small car. It also hurts that we’re now 5 years into the F56 almost and there’s been no under the hood improvements, no increase in fuel economy and the vehicle is still overpriced and lacks reliability most products have after the first couple years of isolating problems.</p>