More in the "Know Your Partner" vein, a "remarkable" sales boost, or so the automotive press are calling it. From Reuters this morning:


BMW sales up and sees strong 2006
Mon Jan 9, 2006 7:02 PM GMT

By Michael Shields, European Auto Correspondent

DETROIT (Reuters) - German automaker BMW AG cemented its status as the No. 1 maker of premium cars on Monday by reporting it boosted 2005 sales almost 10 percent and setting its sights on higher global sales this year.

BMW beat sales numbers reported on Sunday by archrival Mercedes Car Group, the premium division of DaimlerChrysler.

BMW Chief Executive Helmut Panke told reporters at the North American International Auto Show here that he sees the potential for further sales growth this year.

"We expect the BMW Group to remain on the course of growth also in 2006," Panke said. "Therefore, we aim at increasing our retail volume further and we aim at achieving a new retail peak this year."

He declined to be more specific but reaffirmed the group's earlier guidance that 2005 pre-tax profit would come in within 10 percent of the record 3.55 billion euros (2.42 billion pounds) it earned in 2004. This was despite headwinds of around 1 billion euros last year from adverse exchange rates and higher raw material costs.

"We are approaching this (target) from below and are in the corridor that we have announced from the beginning," he said. "There will be no surprises."

The decline at the net profit level would be "significantly smaller" than 10 percent, he said.

Panke said BMW had wrung at least 400 million euros in savings last year by improving efficiency at the Munich-based group. The drag from currency and raw materials costs should remain around the same in 2006, he said.

BMW Group's sales last year rose 9.9 percent to 1.33 million units, with a 10.1 percent increase in BMW brand sales to 1.13 million units and an 8.7 percent rise in demand for Mini brand cars to 200,400 units.

Sales of luxury Rolls-Royce limousines edged up less than 1 percent to 796 cars.

Mercedes Car Group sales rose 1.7 percent in 2005 to 1.22 million units, with Mercedes-Benz deliveries up 1.6 percent to 1.08 million cars and sales of Smart small cars up 2.4 percent to 143,000.

Panke said he was confident BMW would be able to accelerate sales of its core BMW brand vehicles in the United States, where deliveries rose 2.4 percent in 2005. He also cited India, China and Southeast Asia as main growth areas.

Tom Purves, chief executive of BMW's North American operations, agreed that BMW was set for growth in the U.S. market.

"We sold 266,200 BMW cars here in 2005. We will sell more than that in 2006," he told Reuters. "We never give a specific number, but I'm very confident we will do better. We have the new Roadster, the M6 that we're introducing, and additional 3-Series product coming."


Let's hope it all leads to a "sails boost" as well in 2006 and beyond!

Not only are BMW engineers and tools helping to design and build our new ACC yachts, over the weekend it was revealed that BMW will help Airbus with the interior design of its new A350....


BMW to cooperate with Airbus on A350 design
1/6/2006, 8:25 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — German automaker BMW AG said Friday it will help Airbus design its new A350 jet — the chief rival of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

The planned cooperation was first reported by the financial daily Handelsblatt, which cited sources at Airbus as saying that BMW would design a cabin for the A350 that will provide customers with greater comfort.

BMW spokesman Michael Rebspock confirmed that an agreement had been made, but declined to give details.


There's hope yet for a comfortable airplane seat and surroundings.


Interiors by BMW: artist's concept for the Airbus A350-800, a civilian
airliner, with a planned entry into service date of 2010.

Congrats to BMW and the BMW Sauber F1 Team for this major development. Click here for the story, which, who knows, might someday have implications for the AC as well....

More in the vein of "know your partners" -- from a story on Reuters today:


BMW group car sales rise 9.5 pct in November

FRANKFURT, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Global vehicle sales at German premium carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 9.5 percent in November to 114,044 units, fuelled by brisk demand for its revamped BMW 3-Series saloon, the company said on Wednesday.

Deliveries of its core BMW brand cars gained 10.4 percent to 98,788 vehicles last month, while sales of its Mini subcompact advanced 3.7 percent to 15,171 cars.

It delivered 85 Rolls-Royce Phantom luxury limousines, up 6.3 percent.

For the first 11 months, group sales rose 10.8 percent to 1,211,177 cars, keeping it well on track to hit its forecast for unit sales to grow at a high-single-digit rate in 2005.

Sales so far in 2005 have already beaten full-year 2004 levels.

"We can already predict that we will be the most successful supplier in the premium segment worldwide for 2005 as a whole," sales and marketing chief Michael Ganal said. "We are growing more quickly than our relevant competitors."

The BMW 3-Series sedan launched in March has already generated more than 200,000 unit sales, 38 percent more than its predecessor model in the same time period, BMW said.


As Fresh would say, "Nice!"

In another "know your partner" post, one could not let the superlative CNET review of the 2006 BMW 7-Series go unmentioned.

The Editor's Rating is a "spectacular" 9.0 out of 10. Their bottom line: "The 2006 BMW 750Li boasts one of the best interiors of any standard production vehicle, with technology amenities galore. Neither this nor the impressive performance comes cheap, but discerning buyers at this level will be satisfied with the complete package."

The team has a few of these 7-Series driving machines, albeit at the moment the 2005 models, which some of us have had the privelege of driving. All I can say to the above is, "Amen."

As Malin Burnham noted last weekend in San Diego while he was giving
us a lift in his new 7-Series, it probably has the nicest interior of any
production automobile. CNET agrees. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Dicko encourages everyone on the team to "know our partners" as well as to know the competition. Here is some nice ink that appeared on the web today:

BMW was named "Best Brand" in Kelley Blue Book "2006 Best Resale Value Awards." The BMW brand shared the top spot with another BMW Group brand, MINI. The 2006 5 Series was also named as an Overall Top 10 leader in projected resale value.

"These days there’s a great deal of talk in the industry about designing 'aspirational cars,' cars people really want to own, and BMW has done that with the 5 Series," said Jack R. Nerad, editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "Its traditional stellar performance on the resale market is no surprise, because, in a very crowded luxury sedan market, this is a car everybody wants."

"We are very pleased to receive this recognition from Kelley Blue Book for both the BMW and MINI brands," noted Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO of BMW of North America, LLC. "We are very committed to offering our owners outstanding value. This includes not only performance, safety and luxury but low cost of ownership as well. The 5 Series is a prime example of that commitment. We see strong resale value as an important gauge of our efforts."

Kelley Blue Book’s resale values are projections based on current vehicle data, market conditions for each vehicle, competition in segment, expectations of the future economy and the combined experience of Kelley Blue Book’s team of market and pricing analysts. Values reflect projected future wholesale pricing for clean, reconditioned vehicles at the end of a five-year lease period.

The Kelley Blue Book is an especially important benchmark for the auto marketplace in the USA.

More good news in the "know your partners" vein-- from Bloomberg today:


BMW global vehicle sales in August surge 23%

FRANKFURT: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, said worldwide sales surged 23% last month on new demand for new versions of the mid-sized 3-Series and large 7-Series models.

It sold 99,193 BMW, Mini, and Rolls Royce vehicles last month. Sales in the first eight months of 2005 gained 11% from a year earlier to 856,731 units, the Munich-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Demand for the BMW brand in August rose 24% to 85,079 vehicles.

Chief executive Helmut Panke last year boosted profit by 14% to a record 2.22 billion euros (US$2.75bil) as new models attracted customers from competitor DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes-Benz.

The “relatively strong'' euro, costs of steel and oil, and increased competition were holding back 2005 profit growth, Panke said early last month.

“Our growth was extraordinarily strong in August,'' Michael Ganal, the carmaker's sales chief, said in the statement. “Over the year, we continue to expect the BMW Group to achieve an increase in sales in the high single-digit percentage range.''

BMW maintained its lead over DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes Car Group, which yesterday said it sold 86,600 Mercedes-Benz, Smart and Maybach vehicles in August. – Bloomberg


A rising tide lifts all boats?