record year for BMW sales.

[lemming]

posted at Automotive News.

the data are thusly:

first half of 2004: 5.9e5 or so vehicles (+8.5%) --> called the most successful first half in the history of the BMW group (quote from story).

the X3 sold 33,275 in the first half (BMW thanks the good lord for lemmings) and 10,575 6-series luxury coupes. both figures seem astounding to me. i guess about 70,000 x3's is about right, doesn't that seem high to anyone? that's more than all saab sales or audi sales per year, almost in the US. 21,000 or so 6 series car per year is also more than a boutique car. man, that is some serious volume.

the good news is a 51% increase in delivery of the new E60, but double digit drops in 7-series (this is not good, this is a "new" model) and in the 3-series (expected as the e90 is comign soon).

so, what do "we" think?

6 series is doing well. 7-series and z4 are doing horribly. the 3-series is obviously getting long in the tooth and the lemmingmobile, the x3 is selling well.