BMW Group US Sales Went Down 38.4% in April

Decline is the word of the day for BMW Group's US division, as the company has posted the financial results for April 2009. Both BMW and MINI brands have recorded quite disappointing figures that amount to a decrease of 38.4 percent compared to April, 2008.

Proof of the downward spiral the car industry finds itself in is the 29.4 percent year-to-date sales volume decrease. The group managed to sell 70,606 vehicles in the first four months of 2009 as opposed to 99,977 in 2008.

The only positive thing about BMW's figures was related to the Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program. According to the press release, “sales of BMW’s Certified Pre-Owned vehicles are up 1.3 percent, to 9,354 CPO vehicles versus 9,237 vehicles reported last April 2008. Year-to-date, CPO sales are up 10.3 percent, to 38,000 over the 34,461 reported in the same period of 2008.”

“Industry wide, April felt more like a dust bowl than a spring garden for new car sales but at least we are seeing improvements compared to the dark beginning of the year," said Jim O'Donnell, President of BMW of North America LLC.

“For us, strong BMW Certified Pre-Owned business continues to bring new and younger customers into the family while we manage the new vehicle sales as well as we can until this garden begins to grow again – hopefully by the end of the year," he added.

The BMW brand sales went down 41.3 percent in April from 26,735 to 15,705, while the year-to-date figures collapsed 31.3 percent from 85,100 to 58,436. The MINI brand was less affected by this decrease, as they've reported sales of 3,657 automobiles in April 2009, down 22.4 percent from the 4,713 cars sold in April 2008. Year-to-date, MINI also reported sales of 12,170 automobiles, a decrease of 18.2 percent, compared to the 14,877 cars reported in April 2008.