It might be a bit too soon to celebrate, but the January U.S. sales figures are in and BMW has—at least for now—arrested last year's downward sales trend. BMW of North America reported that in January 2017, it moved 18,109 BMWs to new owners.
The increase over January 2016 sales was 27 vehicles, or about one-tenth of one percent of the total month's sales, but even a little up is still up.
“The increased availability of the highly popular BMW X models is paying off as our X model U.S. sales in January topped the all-important 50 percent mark for the second month in a row,” said Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America. He went on to add, “Now, with February here, we are very much looking forward to the launch of our brilliant next-generation 5 Series, only two weeks away.”
The BMW vehicles that moved the needle in January included the BMW X1, which saw sales increase by 21.4 percent; the BMW X3, which was up a very healthy 57.5 percent; and the BMW X5, which experienced 26.8 percent more deliveries than in January a year ago.
All was not rosy within the BMW Group when it came to U.S. sales, however. Mini USA reported January 2017 sales of 3,110 Minis, down about 4 percent from January 2016.
The bright spot for BMW sales in 2016 was pre-owned and Certified Pre-Owned BMWs, and that positive trend continues in a big way. In fact, BMW dealers set an all-time January record for Certified Pre-Owned vehicles, delivering 10,202 units during the month, a 24.2 percent increase from January 2016. Total BMW Pre-Owned sales also set a January record with 18,219 vehicles sold, an increase of 32.6 percent over January last year.
The fact that the company sold 110 more pre-owned BMWs in January than new vehicles indicates that customers very much want BMWs and they want to buy them from dealers, but for some reason—price, availability, or whatever—a pre-owned BMW makes sense for them.
With the imminent arrival of the new G30 5 Series, perhaps BMW cars will make a comeback versus BMW light trucks. It will be an interesting year.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
