Dan Creed, currently Vice President, Aftersales, BMW of North America, will become Vice President, Marketing, BMW of North America LLC. And Russ Lucas, currently Manager, BMW Pre-Owned Sales, will become Vice President – Eastern Region with overall responsibility for sales, marketing, aftersales and dealer development activities in the 12 state Northeast Region which includes the New York metro area. The Northeast Region is the largest sales area for BMW of North America with 93 BMW and 24 MINI dealers.
BMW AG surpassed August’s global sales volumes for its core brand not just versus last year’s month but for those of 2007 and 2008 as well, underlining the strength of the recovery in the premium car market.
BMW said today that it sold more vehicles in China in the first eight months through August than it did for the entire year of 2009.
Global sales of BMW brand vehicles rose 16.3 percent last month to about 88,000 units.
That brought the cumulative total year-to-date to 775,262 BMW brand vehicles, for a gain of 14.0 percent.
“We are seeing a stable upward trend and are gradually regaining the level we had prior to the economic and financial crises,” BMW group sales chief Ian Robertson said in a statement.
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BMW has plans for a product push over the next decade to ward off increasing Audi and Mercedes sales. This will be accomplished through the addition of new models to the BMW lineup, including the 4dr 6-series Gran Coupe, BMW FWD vehicles, new MINI vehicles, added factory capacities and new plants, and increasing sales in the world’s largest growing car market – China.
BMW’s August sales saw a decrease of 1.6% from the same period last year. Year-to-date, the BMW Group sales volume is up 5.6% from last year. However, sales in the second half of the year is not expected to be as strong as the first half.
10 days ago we reported on the closing of BMW’s South African Rosslyn Plant due to a strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA. We’re happy to report that the strike is now over and the plant has resumed 3-series production.
The union has negotiated a 3-year wage increase and its members will receive 10% wage increase this year and 9% increase in the next two years. The strike resulted in the lost production of approximately 17,000 vehicles among the BMW, VW, Toyota, Ford, GM, Nissan, and Daimler manufacturing plants.
The Center for Automotive Research is hosting its annual Management Briefings in Traverse City, Michigan this week. BMW Manufacturing Vice President of Assembly Rich Morris spoke on the subject of World Class Manufacturing. In this video segment, Rich talks about the expansion underway at the Spartanburg plant and how the changes will strengthen BMWs build-to-order system.
The BMW Group recorded a significant increase in sales volume, revenues and earnings in the second quarter of 2010. Group revenues increased by 18.3% while the profit before financial result (EBIT) rose to euro 1,717 million. This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 11.2%. BMW is targeting an overall 10% increase in sales for 2010.
BMW is recalling approximately 6,400 2011 5-series in the US (and 12,400 worldwide) to fix the previously reported faulty fuel level sensor. The good news is that the fix should only take half a day and is of course fully covered under warranty.
The 17th BMW Art Car by Jeff Koons ran at the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans and a photo contest was commissioned by BMW in which the best photo of the BMW Art Car would earn its photographer a $1,000 prize. The winner is Rick Dole, who managed to take this winning photograph from a helicopter! The judges of the photo contest included Dr. Mario Theissen (directory of BMW Motorsports) and BMW drivers Dirk M
