Nov Vehicle Sales: BMW Brand Down 4% As Market Weak

Monday 5:04 am ET

MUNICH December 9, 2002; Dow Jones reported that Bayerische Motoren Werke AG Monday said the new Mini helped November vehicle sales rise 4% on the year to 85,100, but the core BMW brand again suffered amid auto-market weakness.

The BMW brand's car sales skidded 4.6% in November to 71,500, slightly worse than the 4% decline it posted in October. But it's still better than the 7% slump recorded in November by chief rival Mercedes-Benz, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG .

In the first 11 months of the year, the company's auto sales surged 17% to 976,300 - more than the 905,700 it sold in all of 2001, BMW said in a press statement. BMW has said it aims to sell more than one million vehicles in 2002.

Excluding the Mini, BMW's sales rose 3.4% to 842,600 from January through November.

The new top-of-the-line 7-Series and X5 sport activity vehicle are selling well, BMW said.

The Mini is nearing its full-year sales target of 140,000 units, with 134,000 sold year to date. Its top markets are the U.K., Germany and the U.S.

BMW added that motorcycle sales by the end of November rose 6.3% to 95,500 units.

Company Web site: http://www.bmwgroup.com