BMW has posted its 10th consecutive month of rising group car sales.

In November car deliveries increased 7.3% versus the same month last year to 104,425 units, while sales for the first 11 months totalled 1.09 million vehicles, up 8.6% from a year ago and nearly matching its total for all of 2003.

"With these figures, our goal for the year of increasing our sales by a high-single-digit percentage at group level is now within our reach," says BMW sales and marketing chief Michael Ganal.

Sales of the BMW brand models rose 7% to 89,715 units, while Mini deliveries increased 9.4% to 14,630.

Mercedes Car Group reported on Tuesday that its global sales for November increased 9.8%, mainly due to high demand for the newly revamped A-Class hatchback and strong growth in its domestic German market.

Yet Mercedes Car Group sales eased 2.4% in the first 11 months of 2004 to 1.08 million units.