North American BMW brand sales amounted to 31,213 vehicles in November, a robust increase of 10.2% over the 28,330 delivered during the same month a year ago. Along with strong year-over-year growth, the BMW brand is also up a healthy 4.5% in the U.S. year-to-date, thanks to 289,080 deliveries compared to 276,657. Even with MINI carding a double-digit percentage sales decline during November, total BMW NA sales were still up a solid 7.6% year-over-year, thanks to 34,280 deliveries easily besting 31,858. Year-to-date, BMW NA sales have increased 1.7%, from 317,544 to 322,862. After showing some life in September, MINI resumed its trend of declining sales in October, with a pace that only seemed to quicken in November. Last month, MINI sales were down 13.1% year-over-year, with deliveries decreasing from 3,528 to 3,076. The MINI brand is also down double digits year-to-date, with volume shrinking from 40,887 to 33,782, a decrease of 17.4%.
If you’ve been keeping up with any of our recent sales reports, you can probably guess the most popular BMW models in the U.S. right now pretty easily. Vehicles like the X3, X5, X7, and the venerable 3 series continue to push sales into new territory, with models from the X3 through the X7 responsible for the vast majority of growth. During November, the 3 Series took off, with unit deliveries jumping from 3,218 to 6,283, year-over-year growth of 95.2%. The F30 entering its final months during the end of 2018 is a big factor in last month’s on-paper increase, and the year-to-date numbers for the 3 Series are much more sobering, with sales growing from 42,384 to 42,582, an increase of just 2.6%. At least BMW was able to flip the number from negative to positive; in October, the 3 Series remained down 4.9% year-to-date.
BMW X-model growth, on the other hand, is both strong and sustained. The X3 had another solid month in November; after taking a slight break from record-breaking growth in September, the upward trend continued almost unbroken in October, and last month was no exception. X3 sales grew 9.1% from 5,451 to 5,948 year-over-year, and are also up year-to-date, with sales expanding 17.4% from 52,840 to 62,020. The X5 is a popular model as well. Year-over-year deliveries grew from 5,191 to 5,359, an increase of 3.2%, while the year-to-date scale is even better, with growth of 24.3% originating from deliveries that increased from 37,690 to 46,838. The X7 isn’t to be left out either. Even in its first model year, which happens to be partial thanks to deliveries that started around the second quarter, 18,415 X7s have been sold, and 2,614 of those met new owners just last month. The X4 SAC sells in numbers that are, at best, fractional compared to its SAV counterparts, but it’s been having a good year; deliveries are up 1001.%, from 3,711 to 7,425.
As mentioned above, MINI is having rough time in 2019, and just one model saw sales growth during November. The Cooper, along with sub-models like the Cooper S and Clubman, witnessed sales growth of 10.2%, thanks to deliveries that increased from 372 to 410 units. Every other model was down during November, and just one escaped a double-digit decrease, the Countryman. The story is much the same for 2019 so far, with every model except the Cooper four-door having lost ground in the double digits, percentage-wise.
Total BMW pre-owned sales in November amounted to 21,998, a 20.4% year-over-year increase from 18,267. Year-to-date, BMW pre-owned sales have grown 3.1%, from 223,276 to 230,208. BMW certified pre-owned (CPO) sales expanded 26.4% in November, from 8,509 to 10,758, but remain down 4.6% year-to-date, thanks to volume shrinking from 113,432 to 108,163—blame it on all of the new models. Total MINI pre-owned sales came to 2,367, a year-to-date increase of 7.7% from 2,198. MINI pre-owned sales are down 6.8% year-to-date, with deliveries sliding from 29,406 to 27,419. MINI CPO sales were down across the board; 952 deliveries occurred in November, a 2% decrease from the 971 that happened last November, and for 2019, CPO sales declining from 12,551 to 11,718 resulted in a decrease of 6.6%.—Alex Tock
[Photos courtesy BMW AG.]