[Lotus99]

Yay! I contributed to that growth!

[seifufu]

you are welcome...boymonkey

it's pretty safe to say that without the introduction of the 1 series... sales for the BMW brand would have been down year over year for April... looks like their Spring Sales Drive event is not doing that well so far....

however, it's just 1 month of data, so it's a bit too early draw definitive conclusions re. the Sales Drive... we'll see after May data comes out ....

[benyl]

They are still down YTD.

I think the low lease rates, which are unusual at this time of year are helping them stay afloat.

[sparkyg]

I think the M3 sales are gonna hurt the most. Too much $$ considering it really is way cheaper in the US, not just a little. They gotta give $8k cashback to even consider.

I really thing BMWCA is painting themselves into a corner.

[SlammedR8]

do you think they will drop m3 price in canada or do a cashback?

[sparkyg]

Not likely at all this summer. They'll wait it out hoping people come in and drop the $$. The problem with BMWCA is they are slow to react to sales performance.

They wait till the sales are lost then react based on the evidence, too bad the people have already bought.

They drive their sales by looking in the rear view mirror. Ever try driving you car that way.

Overall, poor sales technique. They are in car sales, not car shows. The M3 will always look nice on the floor, too bad it is still on the floor.

[Bimmerista]

I don't think BMW Canada has a choice - sales pricing is driven by BMWUSA who will not change the pricing across the board unless BMW AG says so.

I was told that BMWs are mostly leased and as a result the focus has been on lowering the lease rates to get the pricing down (monthlies).

As well, BMWs have a pretty good re-sale value, which would go down the tubes with across the board price reductions, which in turn will hurt BMW if indeed most are leased since they would be stuck with the loss on resale from expiring leases. This is why BMW has resisted lowering the prices as opposed to cash back. BMW figures they will ride out 2008 and see where our dollar goes in 2009.