January MINI sales drop dramatically

Global sales of the MINI brand have taken a drop of over a third in January 2009 when compared to the same month of 2008.

In January 2009 BMW Group recorded 10,120 MINIs sold. January 2008 saw 15,475 new MINIs sold Worldwide, this decline in sales represents a decrease of 34.5% new MINIs sold in the month.

BMW Group sales as a whole suffered a similar fate as is being witnessed across much of the motoring industry, BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce combined sales tallied up to 70,405 vehicles, which compared to January 2008’s figures of 92,849 is a 24.2% change in the wrong direction for the Bavarian manufacturer.

Part of the decline in MINI sales has been attributed to the lack of a Convertible model, which has historically accounted for around 16% of total MINI sales, the new MINI Convertible will go on sale globally at the end of March, and MINI will surely hope this, and the ensuing hype, will encourage potential new buyers to take the plunge.

Another contributing factor could be the MINIs reliance on private retail purchases, as opposed to corporate buyers and fleet deals. Private sales are usually more exposed to the effects of harsh economic conditions such as those being experienced in the UK, and across the globe at present.

UK MINI sales are also reported to be down 34.9% for January compared to the same month of the previous year.

Talks are reportedly ongoing regarding the future of the weekend shift and possible further redundancies at BMW Plant Oxford, where all MINI models are currently produced, a report in the Whitney Gazette suggests these could continue for some time yet.

As previously reported, MINI sales for 2008 bucked the trend and increased over 2007’s figures to a grand total of 232,425 vehicles, up 4.3% year on year.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 2:22 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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2 Responses to “January MINI sales drop dramatically”

  1. Global MINI sales slump in January.... - MINI2 - MINI Forum says:
    February 6, 2009 at 2:31 pm

    [...] MINI sales slump in January…. Not good figures: January MINI sales drop dramatically | theSwitchback Quote: In January 2009 BMW Group recorded 10,120 MINIs sold. January 2008 saw 15,475 new MINIs [...]

  2. new colours. - MINI2 - MINI Forum says:
    February 8, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    [...] 4% on 2007, but the latest figures (Dec, then January) have not been so good, see here for example: January MINI sales drop dramatically | theSwitchback I hope things pick up soon, for the workers more than anything [...]

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