BMW Australia Secures Record Sales in Booming Market

SYDNEY - July 3, 2008: BMW delivered 2,258 new luxury cars to customers in June 2008, its best sales month ever.

The result is a full 705 additional vehicles over the result in May 2008 (1,553 vehicles), a rise of 45 percent .

The rise was attributed to a strong retail offer on 3 Series during the month and the typical end of financial year rush. In addition, high demand for the just-released 1 Series Coupé and Convertible drove sales figures up, along with ongoing demand for the 3 Series Coupé and Convertible and X3 Sports Activity Vehicle. The much-discussed LCT rate rise also had an effect, but the BMW sales increase was well above that of the luxury class average.

In the luxury SUV class, the BMW X5 secured 497 sales in June. With 2,118 sales year-to-date, the BMW X5 is now more than twice as popular as its nearest rival.

A year ago, the BMW sales result for June 2007 was the second best in BMW history in Australia, at 1,650 cars, with the previous outright best month being July 2000 following the introduction of GST.

The substantial rise in sales in June 2008 was no surprise to BMW, since cars are delivered to customers approximately three months after ordering, meaning customers taking delivery in June would have ordered their cars as early as March.

The strong BMW performance echoed the market generally where in excess of 106,000 new vehicles were registered, underlining the high demand for vehicles of all classes.

Overall, the June 2008 result was the strongest in the history of the Australian new car market, eclipsing the previous record month of June 2007 by 1,444 units.