Ford retailers received a boost this week after a leading used car guide revealed three of its best selling models had firm residual values. CAP Black Book rates the Focus, Mondeo and Fiesta – all permanent fixtures in the list of top sellers – as strong used car performers.
With 1,104,916 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motorcars sold, the BMW Group achieved a new sales volume record last year and surpassed the previous year's (2002) record of 1,057,344 units by 4.5%.
German BMW dealers' legal action over the company's decision to reduce their gross margins on sales of the new BMW 7 Series received a setback in the verdict of a Munich district court
German BMW dealers who had taken legal action over the company's decision to reduce their gross margins on sales of the new BMW 7 Series have received a setback in the verdict of a Munich district court, which last week confirmed on appeal a lower court's ruling of May 2003 that BMW had the right to amend its contract terms.
Retro rockets 6 into space
BMW chief Helmut Panke doesn't like the idea of a BMW people mover. “We won't do a boring van,” he says bluntly. But that doesn't mean BMW isn't looking at building roomy, estate-type vehicles capable of carrying five or seven passengers. Just don't call them people movers...
GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler saw sales decline in 2003 while several import and 'transplant' brands, including Toyota, Honda and BMW, posted record full-year sales.
Sytner BMW in Nottingham has opened a new £10m development that it claims is one of the largest dealerships for BMW in Europe.
This is BMW's new E60 5-series estate, caught on a photographic shoot in South Africa. This late pre-production car is being used for brochure and press photography in preparation for the E60 estate's public debut at the Geneva Show next March.
At the invitation of Phoenix Venture Holdings, unions TGWU and Amicus have jointly apponted Peter Regnier, a former finance director of Rover Group in the pre-BMW 1980s, to inspect Phoenix Venture Holdings and MG Rover accounts on their behalf.
Within 10 years the majority of UK car owners will no longer be buying their cars – they'll be leasing them. That's the vision of BMW, which expects its rising finance penetration – last year 37 per cent; this year 41 per cent – to continue. Frank Munk, chief executive at BMW Group Financial Service GB, predicts that the UK will follow the example of the American market where drivers have no interest in owning their cars.
When historians come to write the story of the first 100 years of BMW, considerable attention will be given to the period 1995 to 2005.
For the first time since its addition of the MINI and Rolls Royce brands to its portfolio, BMW Group is appointing separate brand marketing managements to BMW and to each of the newcomers.
BMW has opened a new purpose- built performance centre at Rock-ingham, Northamptonshire to cater for in-house and external driving activities.
The new BMW Performance Centre at the Rockingham race circuit near Corby, Northants, will accommodate a programme of internal and external BMW activities, featuring BMW cars, motorcycles and associated technologies.
Following their acquisition of the Warwick BMW dealership in February 2001, former F1 driver Damon Hill and Nick Whale have acquired a second dealership in partnership.
Although the Automotive Academy announced by the Government will not be fully operational until later next year, BMW, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, MG Rover Group, Nissan, and Leyland Trucks are amongst those who have already appointed senior directors to sit on the Academy's Project Board.
MG has launched a V8-powered version of its ZT saloon and ZT-T estate. Powered by Ford's 260bhp, 4.6-litre V8 engine, used in North America in the Mustang, the rear- wheel drive MG ZT 260 V8 hopes to compete with the likes of the BMW 330i, Jaguar X-Type and Volvo S60 T5.
Lookers Group is involved in discussions with BMW and Mercedes-Benz as it looks to add the two premium brands to its portfolio.
Glass's Market Intelligence Service suggests that the residual values for prestige convertibles (e.g. Mercedes CLK Cabriolet, Audi A4 Cabriolet) and larger 4x4s (e.g. Range Rover, BMW X5) aged one- to three-years-old out-perform those of the rest of the market.