BMW to Cut Production, Raise Prices World-Wide

S

Shipkiller

Veteran
Interesting read from todays Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121756658306404005.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
 
Sounds like they're wanting their cake and wanting to eat it too. You have to build a base of owners. Heck, I'd have never bought my 325Ci except for the fact I got it for right around $30,000. I traded that one in on my Z4. The good news is, those of us who have our BMWs already will see great resale prices.
 
In the region I live in (Kansas City) the last place to get a decent trade-in price is from a BMW dealership, they have been exceptionally brutal on trade-in prices over the last few years. The only way of getting anything even near listed prices for a used car is to sell privately, otherwise, you take it in the pants.
 
I was always surprised at the US pricing policy. The cars in the US retail at about 50% of the cost of the same car in Europe (exluding taxes).
 
I'm not sure I understand BMW stategy in this. After anouncing the broadening of the ///M brand by the introduction of an X-5M and an X-6M plus the introduction of an X1 they
are now announcing a reduction of production and an increase in profit by raises prices. If you are broadening your model line-up to attract as many people as possible and then
cutting the production how does that make sense?

The way I see it is if you take ramdomly 100 drivers on the road 1 will be a car enthousiast and the other 99 will be soccer mom/casual drivers that want to go from point A to B
efficiently so broadening the model lineup to attract these 99 drivers make sense but then you announce a reduction in production and jack up the price. The soccer moms are
not enthousiasts mostly and will not wait for their car they'll simply buy them elsewhere.

Cheers.
 
I was hoping we were going to start seeing us here in the UK getting BMW's at the special prices the USA have been getting, but it looks like it could be the other way round! Bugger! :|
 
Shipkiller, I am begining to think you have way too much free time finding all these great reads... :P
 
Hmm I wonder what they will do with prices here in the UK. They are already too expensive, so that IIRC in excess of 40% of cars are registered to BMW first. The Z4 just shows that the market will buy their cars but only at the right price. A Z4M new at £44k has few buyers, yet the same car at 6 months old for £32k or less is relatively easy to sell. Likewise with the 3.0 coupe and roadster - plenty around for £8-10k under list at <12 months old. But if you bought new then it's a nightmare.

Unless they get their act together and sort out the residuals, then raising prices is a complete waste of time, over here anyway.
 
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