Bill Howard, BMW CCA
Jan. 4, 2007

BMW’s 3 Series had the greatest unit volume increase of any BMW Group model and helped propel BMW Group to a 2% sales increase in 2006. Other big winners included the Z4 and 5 Series, while the 6 Series, 7 Series, and X5 had downer years.
For the second year, BMW Group topped 300,000 sales in the U.S., finishing 2006 with both a record year for sales and a record-setting month. December sales of 33,417, the group’s first-ever month above 30,000, pushed BMW Group (actually, BMW plus Mini but not Rolls-Royce, whose sales trickle in more slowly) to 313,603 for 2006, an increase of 2.1% over 2005’s 307,020. The December sales were a 16% increase over December 2005’s 28,900.

The BMW Group’s 2% sales increase reflects varying fortunes for its components: an increase of 18,510 car sales, a 9% increase; a decrease of 1,649 Mini sales, a 4% decrease; and a 10,278 unit falloff for the X3/X5 SAVs, a 15% decline.


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