M/A Team submitted a new Article: BMW Group U.S. Reports March 2018 Sales. Read more about this article here...
Well considering sales last year were among MINI USA's worst sales years, it won't take much to beat the numbers. It is good to see the brand selling better long enough for us to see what the 4th gen will look like.
Read the article. A small increase for BMW, but MINI sales were down compared to last year, by a significant 9.1%.
I just listened to White Roof radio last week and they had compared numbers to last year and they were up. May have to listen again to see if it was for a specific stealership or not. Still, hope to see what the next gen looks like if they make it that far.
They must have been discussing February numbers. The March numbers were just released yesterday, in the press release linked in the first post.
I think for the year MINI is up.. but would have to go back and look at January and February.. will clean this article up and get most of the information in later.. the table in it takes a little work to move over. Maybe even do a tally.. does anyone have the historical sales numbers from the Gen 1 - today. Would be interesting to see the trend line.
One thing I'm not a huge fan of is the bundles they are getting ready to do. Basically americanize it. It will be "packages" with options... one of the unique things about MINI was you could order yours custom pretty easy. I understand from a production / efficiency standpoint why they would do this. Hopefully the packages have a lot of options.
First gen sales were very high because the dealerships had no stock. Most cars sold were ordered by the buyer and we waited 3-4 months.
MINI has always had bundles even with the first gens. You could not get a sunroof without adding this package or that package. We only had 4 packages to choose from.
Oh - didn't realize that. Thought 1st gen was pretty much whatever you wanted. While I understand the bundles from a production effecienty standpoint, with modern assembly lines, I would think you could make it a menu and if folks wanted to do "whatever" they could. Good to know.
I'm willing to cut WRR a bit of slack given that they're not afraid to raise the BS flag on Gabe when he goes all 3rd Gen fan boy on them. Todd, in particular, frequently complains about the trend (larger, uglier, more mainstream), the way MINI corporate has abandoned the core enthusiasts community both in design and marketing, and ties those things to the observed putrid U.S. sales figures. Yeah, he bought an F56 JCW but you can always sense he enjoys it much more from the cockpit than looking at it from the outside. MF, on the other hand, is a constant and obvious whore to MINI USA.