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BMW's Half-Year Sales Rise, June Figures Going Down, Recalls to Blame?

Both good and bad news come from the BMW Motorrad camp, as the semester sales reports indicate a growth to date, but a dip as far as the sales for the month of June are concerned.
Unfortunately, the customers who bought the 2014 R1200GS with ESA suspensions have been sidelined by the riding ban 1 photo
Photo: BMW
Overall, BMW Motorrad is doing fine, according to the official figures supplied by the Bavarian manufacturer. In the first 6 months of 2014, BMW supplied 70,978 motorcycles and maxi scooters, a rather steady increase of 9.3% over the 64,941 units which have been sold to end customers in the same period of 2013.

The leader in the BMW sales charts is still the new liquid-cooled R1200GS machine, of which almost 15,000 units have been sold worldwide, accounting for a hefty 21%+ of the total of bikes. Next in line are two boxer models as well, the R1200GS Adventure and the sport-tourer R1200RT, with 9,708 and 7,420 units sold, respectively. The last bike equipped with the air/oil-cooled version of the 1200 boxer engine, the R nineT sold 4,114 units through the end of June, 2104.

However, the worldwide sales for the month of June alone went down by 5.7%, to 11,827 units, compared to the 12,541 bikes and maxi-scooters sold in the same month of the previous year. The German manufacturer elegantly avoided to provide the reasons for the decrease in the number of sold motorbikes, but it’s no secret that the nasty story of the even nastier recall involving the 2014 R1200RT motorcycles equipped with the ESA dynamic suspensions.

Motorcycle sales in the US also went down by 3.4% in June, with 1,327 units sold. The 190 R1200GSs sold in the States helped even out the R-series decline and even record a 7% increase. S-series machines sold 44 percent better, with the HP4 superbike skyrocketing to 58 deliveries, compared to only 22 in June 2013. The US branch of BMW Motorrad sold 8.2% more bikes half-year than in the first semester of 2013.

Given the fact that BMW offered unhappy R1200RT customers the possibility to return their bikes for a full refund, it would be interesting to find out how many opted for this move and how were these bikes accounted for in the overall sales figures…
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