Mini Sales Shrinking, BMW Slumps As Well

BMW of North America today reported falling BMW and Mini U.S. fourth quarter and full-year 2020 sales.

BMW sales in the most recent quarter totaled 98,750 vehicles, a 2.0-percent decrease from the 100,797 vehicles sold in the fourth quarter of 2019. Mini sold 8,549 cars, a decrease of 3.6 percent from the 8,864 sold in that same time period.

For the full year, BMW sales dropped 17.5 percent on sales of 278,732 versus 338,003 vehicles sold in 2019. Meanwhile, Mini sales shrank 22.4 percent on sales of 28,138 cars, against 36,272 sold the previous year, more telling than the decrease that took place in the fourth quarter. Industry-wide, J.D. Power and LMC Automotive have projected total 2020 U.S. new vehicle sales to be about 14.5 million units, a 14.8 percent decline compared to 2019.

Despite the dismal report, a more positive spin came from Bernhard Kuhnt, BMW of North America president and CEO, who said, “There is no doubt that 2020 was a challenging year for automotive sales, but we have found that these challenges were due more to the circumstances, rather than consumer demand.”

Perhaps, but then there are used car sales as an indicator, and here BMW Certified Pre-Owned sales were off 20.5 percent the last quarter, falling to 25,811 vehicles. For the full year, CPO sales were 108,593 vehicles, a decrease of 9.3 percent from the 119,682 vehicles sold in 2019.

BMW pre-owned sales were 52,573 vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2020, a decrease of 21.9 percent from the same quarter last year. For all of 2020, total BMW Pre-Owned sales were 214,155, a decrease of 15.5 percent from the 253,456 vehicles sold in 2019.

As bad as that sounds, Mini CPO sales were 2,175 vehicles during the last quarter, a decrease of 21.2 percent from the same quarter a year ago. For the full year, Mini CPO sales were 9,488, a 25 percent decrease from the 12,648 vehicles sold the year prior.

Total used Mini sales were 5,310 vehicles during the fourth quarter, a 22.6 percent decrease from a year ago. For the full year, total used Mini sales were 22,426, a 24.6 percent drop from the 29,761 vehicles sold in 2019.

Sales of BMW passenger cars, light trucks, and Mini cars, reported in today’s figures are consistent with industry practices in the U.S. BMW adheres to the U.S. Auto Industry Sales Release Schedule issued annually by Motor Intelligence for purposes of reporting sales of BMW cars, light trucks, and Mini cars.

[Images: Mini, BMW]