BMW: Crisis, What Crisis, Anyone Seen A Crisis?
It is possible to make cars in Europe and to nevertheless survive quite nicely. The secret: Sell a lot of them elsewhere than in Europe. Case in point: BMW. Despite a disappointing month in its home market Germany, BMW had a best-ever global July, following record sales in the first half of the year.
With strong sales in the U.S. and very strong sales in China, BMW lifted the July number to 135,537 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles, up 5% compared to the previous year. January to July, deliveries climbed 7.6% to 1,036,088 vehicles. EU woes notwithstanding, BMW sales chief Ian Robertson is “confident that we will continue to make solid gains throughout the second half of the year.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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With BMW, it's not the four or six cylinders under the hood, but the a$$hats behind the wheel.
A couple less cylinders and a questionable styling detail and BMW is garbage? Looks like they are doing all right despite the nay sayers.
BMW spent the last 40 years positioning themselves as a very expensive high class brand in the US so the idea of diesels and four cylinder models rubs the local market the wrong way.
Love em, hate em, tell the porcupine joke; BMW is every automobile marketers target.