Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Mercedes offers 3,000-euro discount amidst struggling sales

The bad economy looks to be getting deeper over in Europe. The latest evidence is German carmakers' desperate efforts to prop up badly-lagging sales. Last month, European discounts on German brands averaged 12.2 percent. And now, Mercedes-Benz is offering a 3000-euro ($3,900) trade-in incentive to customers.

Success of the discounts has been minimal at best. September car sales in Germany fell 11 percent despite the incentives. With 25 percent of Europe's car sales coming from the Germans, some expect the drop to also pull the entire continent's numbers down to 1993 levels.

"Germany's sales results are sending the signal that we're certainly not out of the woods, but are deep in the woods and aren't going to get out soon," Jonathon Poskitt, an analyst at LMC Automotive in Oxford, England, tells Automotive News Europe. "It looks like 2013 is going to be another difficult year."

And those monthly numbers are actually rosier than reality. Sales of discounted "zero-mile used vehicles," accounted for 33.5 percent of September sales in Germany. Zero-mile cars are created in a practice by German dealers in which new cars are licensed by the dealer, then sold as used at a more than 20-percent discount. It moves inventory off the lot, but is costly to dealers and manufacturers.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/10/18/m...uggling-sales/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

MBZ is trying desperately to hold on to the sales crown right now

rogers2

Reread the article, I think they're talking about Europe not the U.S. BMW or VW probaly will take the sales crown in Europe.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

you really shouldn't take things too seriously. I didn't say US. Euro economy is in the tank and they will do anything to get a sale. So they put on an incentive similar to how the US did the CFC incentive to help facilitate sales. And were talking about tier 1 makes not VW despite it's ownership in Audi

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

BMW moving thousands of cars from Europe to US, Asia

If you think the US economy is in bad shape, consider this: BMW is diverting "tens of thousands" of cars from European dealers to the US and Asia.

Ian Robertson, BMW sales chief, tells Automotive News that Europe faces "a lot of bumps on the road" before a sales recovery takes place. The publication says that region's automotive industry expects 2012 to show the biggest annual sales drop in 19 years.

BMW sold 14 percent more vehicles worldwide in September, with demand for the new 3-Series sedan in the US and China contributing big.

BMW officials didn't indicate what models it would divert from Europe.

How this will affect the sales race between BMW, Audi and Mercedes is unclear, especially since all three brands are feeling equal amounts of hurt. Also, there's no word on whether an expanded US inventory will spur BMW to offer deals to customers.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/10/20/b...pe-to-us-asia/