Category Archives: BMW

New app plays Cupid for Mini Fans

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BMW has created a way to spark a little romance for MINI enthusiasts. The latest version of the MINI Connect Us app is designed to help owners of the iconic little car find their dream date.

Unlike traditional online matchmaking services, Connect Us is unique and only works in a MINI. BMW officials say the app is the most reliable of its type in the world, because is doesn’t factor in such trivia as personal interests and preferences. Connect Us makes its recommendations based strictly on driving style.

Connect Us compares driver inputs such as use of the accelerator, steering wheel and brakes (as deduced by the MINI Driving Excitement Analyser) and compares them with those of other MINI drivers. When it detects a match, the app opens a link to the other MINI driver, based on previously input gender preferences. The system works because it’s only when the driver is behind the wheel that the real personality can be known. So the Connect Us function also examines data collected by the Driving Excitement Analyser to deliver a precise comparison of drivers’ sprinting prowess, cornering ability and braking strategy. Only then, if the two drivers have comparable styles, will Connect Us invite them to meet up in person.

Accessing the Internet via Apple iPhone, the MINI drivers can use the Google Local Search service to find restaurants and other popular social destinations and share ratings using foursquare. And they can also keep in touch via Facebook, download their favourite music from AUPEO! and stay up to speed on issues of their choice with RSS news feeds.

According to the company. The Driving Excitement Analyser function of the MINI Connected App has been available for several weeks as a free download from the Apple App Store. But the Connect Us “update” can be downloaded only today, April 1, 2013.

“Get connected, get matched up, get dating” is the name of the game when it comes to using MINI Connected’s wide range of possibilities to finding love. BMW claims it is the ideal wingman (or wingwoman).

BMW is top-selling luxury brand in 2012

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It came right down to the wire, but BMW pulled out all the stops in December to bring in a total of 37,399 sales for a 2012 total of 281,460 cars and SUVs. The was enough to beat Mercedes-Benz’s December total of 28,145 and 2012 total of 274,134, an all-time record for the folks from Sindelfingen. The margin of 7,326 sales locked up the luxury segment crown for the Bavarians for another year.

It will be interesting to see if the fierce rivalry between the two German automakers will involve some of the questionable tactics used last year when BMW dealers actually registered new cars to bolster the numbers and then sold the cars as demonstrators, used but with the full new car warranty. Mercedes employed similar tactics to beef up its numbers.

Lexus, which had been the king of the hill for many years beginning in the first years of the 21st Century, came in third with a 12-month total of 244,166. Lexus did beat Mercedes’ monthly sales in December by delivering 30,607 cars and trucks.

Cadillac was the top premium brand, placing fourth in December sales but dropping behind Acura to fifth for the year. Actual retail sales of GM’s luxury marque were only slightly ahead of those reported by sixth-place Audi, which set its own all-time record in 2012.

Sales of the S60 and XC60 gave Volvo its best sales year since 2007 as the U.S. once again was the largest market for the Swedish brand.

Porsche sales soared 61.8% in December, sealing the deal for a new all-time sales record as sales of the newest 911 climbed 41.8% in 2012.

Land Rover sales were up, but Jaguar took a slight tumble. Still Jaguar Land Rover’s 2012 results were positive.

PREMIUM BRANDS – DECEMBER & FULL-YEAR SALES
Brand December Brand 2012
BMW 37,399 BMW 281,460
Lexus 30,607 Mercedes-Benz 274,134
Mercedes-Benz 28,145 Lexus 244,166
Cadillac 18,248 Acura 156,216
Acura 16,034 Cadillac 149,782
Audi 14,841 Audi 139,310
Infiniti 12,627 Infiniti 119,877
Lincoln 7,384 Lincoln 82,150
Volvo 6,150 Volvo 68,117
Land Rover 5,174 Land Rover 43,644
Porsche 2,952 Porsche 35,043
Jaguar 1,049 Jaguar 12,011

BMW adds incentives as luxo-battle intensifies

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BMW has just announced a new program that allows current lessees of BMW vehicles skip as many as three monthly payments if they lease a selected new BMW. Most BMW models except M and 3-series vehicles are included.

It’s a great time to be in the market for a Bimmer. BMW is locked in a huge battle with Mercedes-Benz to gain the top spot in the luxury segment in the U.S., with both manufacturers spending more than the industry average in various types of incentives. As of the nine months ending September 30, Mercedes is ahead by 5,221 sales. Last year, it was BMW in the lead by 7,643 sales.

BMw is also involved with a bigger war: the one for top luxury brand in the world. However, this competition is not with Mercedes, which is a distant third at the moment, but with Audi. At the end of August, Audi was just over 2,000 worldwide sales behind BMW. BMW ramped up its efforts, giving it a very good September, and increasing its world-wide lead by about 20,000 year-to-date sales.

But Audi has the backing of Volkswagen cash and can play at that game if it wants to. If VW CEO Martin Winterkorn gave approval, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler could stand on a street corner in Ingolstadt and pass out enough Audis to fill the deficit without exhausting VW’s profit from the most recent quarter.

Audi has actually backed off its prediction that it would be the No.1 luxury carmaker by 2015: it’s now 2020. This is due to not only the two-pronged European market meltdown, but the slowdown in China as well. I say two-pronged meltdown because sales of upscale vehicles are not only being hit by the general collapse but, in some countries, because people are afraid to buy luxury vehicles because of the taxman. This is especially true in Italy, where heavily armed Financial Police are setting up roadblocks to check the tax receipts on upscale vehicles. We’re talking a trio of cops, at least one of whom is toting a submachine gun: even more effective than road spikes.

Of course, it’s going to be interesting to see who is No. 1 at the end of the year. If you’re betting right now, put your money on GM. Volkswagen still doesn’t have quite the sales, now that GM has worked out the legal issues to claim production of joint-venture cars in China, and Toyota may take a bit of a hit in the U.S. over recalls and a lot bigger hit in China because of the Senkaku Islands dispute. When the natives are burning your cars in the streets and vandalizing your dealerships, you’re probably not going to have a swell sales month.

Toyota, Honda and other Japanese automakers are scaling back their 2012 projections because of the Chinese situation, all of which plays right into the hands of General Motors.

It will be interesting to see if GM can offload Opel into a j-v with Peugeot. It might cost the General something on the order of $10 billion, but it might be worth it. It also frees GM to get more aggressive with Chevrolet and Cadillac in the European market.

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s shaping up to be a wild year in the worldwide auto market.

BMW inflated July sales to beat Mercedes

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BMW claimed victory in the July premium brand race, reporting 21,297 sales, 1,986 sales ahead of arch-rival Mercedes-Benz. The strong month also left BMW just 104 sales behind the folks from Sindelfingen for the first seven months of the year.

However, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, BMW dealers are saying that some of the vehicles included in the sales report are still in their showrooms; still waiting for a buyer.

According to dealers, BMW of North America made a special, one-day offer on July 31. For that day, the dealers would receive discounts of as much as $7,000 for each 2012 MY 7-series car reported as sold.

Dealers apparently took advantage of the offer to stock up on demonstrators, the cars the dealers use for test drives and other uses. Kenn Sparks, a BMW spokesman, said its July sales total includes those vehicles but declined to give a specific quantity, citing company policy.

Automakers book their revenue when they ship new vehicles to dealers; they’re known for using a variety of methods to improve their numbers beyond retail customer purchases, such as heavily discounted rental fleet deals and special incentives and even strong-arm tactics to get dealers to stock more vehicles than they need.

But, as the car companies have discovered, stuffing dealer lots and piling on incentives to move the metal can backfire. A short-term boost is usually followed by a payback slump when the promotions end. Deep discounting also can hurt a carmaker’s profit margins and erode the residual value of the vehicles themselves.

On paper, BMW’s dealer incentives look like they did the trick, giving the Bavarians the lead for the month. But as the chart shows, the July sales of 7-series cars, BMW’s most expensive standard sedan line with prices that start above $73,000, are far and away the best monthly numbers in the past 25 months. In fact, one has to go back several years to find a comparable monthly total in any month. Not only did the 7-series triple its sales from July 2011, it more than doubled the sales of competitive vehicles like the Lexus LS, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Porsche Panamera.

The 3-Series coupe had spiffs totaling $3,200 and it, too, enjoyed a boom. Sales hit 2,555 units in July, more than double the 1,222 sold in June.

Most automakers require that vehicles designated as demonstrators must be kept for a certain period of time, usually 90 to 180 days. Some also require the vehicle to be sold as used. According to Mr. Sparks, BMWs purchased as demos are supposed to be clearly marked and sold only as used cars, as well, but dealers said they routinely offer the vehicles as new, with no objections from BMW.

BMW dealers are under competitive pressure from two sources: First, they’re in competition with other BMW dealers to get every factory penny they can to to be able to match or beat their rivals’ deals. Second, they are competing with BMW dealers in China for product allocations: they need to be able to show the 2012 inventory is being depleted so they won’t see a cut in the number of new vehicles BMW sends to the U.S.

So far, Daimler AG has had no response to the Journal’s report.

BMW i3 hits London

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As part of the grand opening of the world’s first BMW i Store on London’s Park Lane, BMW Group will present its i3 Concept with a new interior color and materials concept. Based on the original concept car which made its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November, the latest version of the i3 was developed using BMW’s “next premium” vision.

The German automaker says the new interior gives an impression of generous space enhanced by renewable raw materials including leather, wood, wool and other natural fibers.

The BMW i3 Concept is an all-electric vehicle that makes extensive use of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). CFRP technology is already fundamentally changing the car industry because its strength and light weight allow automakers to create vehicles that burn less fuel, thereby producing fewer emissions. BMW produces the CFRP for the i-series in Moses Lake, Washington at a plant operated as a joint venture with SGL Group.

The i3 has a BMW-designed, rear-mounted, 170-horsepower, permanently excited hybrid synchronous electric motor that produces 184 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 km/h (about 37 mph) takes less than four seconds and the 0-100 km/h (62 mph) time is under eight seconds. The top speed is an electronically governed 93 mph: BMW says higher speeds have a major impact on range. Speaking of range, BMW estimates the i3 can go somewhere between 80 and 100 miles on a full charge.

One of the key talking points about the i3 is recharge time: BMW says the car can be recharged to 80 percent of capacity in just one hour with a fast charger. Full recharge with standard household power takes about six hours, hours less than most competing electrics.

If that’s not enough, BMW will offer an optional range extender, a small gasoline engine that can charge the battery the way the Chevrolet Volt does.

Compared to the hybrid i8 that appeared in Mission Impossible–Ghost Protocol, the i3 is more compact for city driving. It’s nine inches shorter and two inches wider than a Ford Fiesta. In fact, the i3′s geometry is unusual in that the width is equal to more than half the length. Works wonders for interior shoulder room.

One of the downsides of concept cars is that they are most often just that: concepts. BMW, however, believes the i3 should not only be admired, it should be sold with a premium price tag. Therefore, the i3, with some changes to meet various government standards, is expected to go on sale in the European market late next year and in the U.S. in 2014. The closest thing to a price that BMW has offered is an estimated 40,000-euro price in Germany, which would be about $50,000 at current exchange rates, making the i3 about $10,000 more than the Volt.