MINI boosts BMW sales

A positive market reaction to the new MINI is the key factor in a 19 per cent rise in car sales in the first 10 months of 2002, BMW has reported. The Munich firm said it had sold 891,100 cars up to the end of October, compared with 750,300 the previous year, while sales in October alone rose nine per cent to 85,300.

It's key rival, Mercedes-Benz, is finding the going tougher. It sold 1,500 fewer Mercedes cars in the first 10 months of 2002 than a year earlier, but said it had expanded its share of the shrinking global market.