Thursday 13 January 2011

FUMING BMW REFUTES MERCEDES-BENZ SALES CLAIMS


BMW South Africa is crying foul over bitter rival Mercedes-Benz’s claims that it lead the premium segment in 2010. According to figures released by Merc, the company sold “over 22 500 cars” in 2010. According to BMW SA's spokesperson Edward Makwana, this claim is false as his company sold more cars, at 22 622 units for the BMW brand alone, and 24 405 including MINI. BMW SA does not have license to sell Rolls Royce in this country.


“The achievement of premium segment leadership in South Africa mirrors the success of the BMW Group globally, with similar drivers,” explains BMW South Africa Managing Director, Bodo Donauer. “As the leading provider of premium vehicles around the world, the success of our sales can be attributed to one of the youngest premium vehicle model line- ups available and robust demand for the many new vehicles we launched in 2010.

As a result BMW took 35.4% market share of the premium segment and an 8.8 overall market share (including MINI). At the forefront of this surge were the 3 Series – regular Top 5 seller -, the facelift X5 and the new X1. The 5 Series also did well to augment sales. MINI sold 1 783 cars in 2010, an average of nearly 150 units a month.

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