Bill Howard, BMW CCA
Jan. 8, 2007

DETROIT -- It’s good to be the king. While Detroit’s hometown automakers are struggling to survive, BMW was hitting on all cylinders. At a packed press conference Sunday, BMW kicked off 2007 with the world debut of the 3 Series convertibles and announced records for the BMW Group on sales.

Member of the board Dr. Michael Ganal stood in for new CEO Norbert Reithofer, who was grounded in Germany with the flu and ordered not to fly. The highlight of the press conference was the rollout of the 3 Series convertible and the announcement of on sale date: “In Europe, this new model will be launched on March 24. Here in the US, it will be available starting at the end of March,” he said. Ganal also re-introduced the X5 and Hydrogen 7 cars that had been announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show in late November.


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