It looks as though BMW may be slowing production even more. Whatever they must do to weather the economic storm is fine by us; as long as the cars they do produce are up to the current standards. Severe cost cutting by dropping items and features should be used as a last resort so the Roundel is not tarnished. BMW is going to have to work hard at managing supply and demand in order make it through this patch of slow sales.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The world ‘s top premium carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE) could further cut its production levels and take other cost-saving measures if the auto sector remains in crisis, BMW sales and marketing head Ian Robertson told a German magazine.

“When it comes to cutting production, we are looking very carefully at how the market develops over the next weeks and will then decide about possible steps, ” Robertson said in article to be published in the next edition of auto motor und sport.

In November, the German luxury automaker cut production levels and scrapped 2008 earnings forecasts after its quarterly profits slumped 60 percent.

Robertson said making accurate estimates about the coming year was next to impossible.

“We ‘ve never had such a broad spectrum of estimates, like we now see. Established market institutes and investment banks see a worldwide drop of between 5 and 10 percent in automobile sales, ” Robertson said.

He said BMW ‘S Rolls Royce unit had only been slightly affected by the economic downturn and the automaker stood by its target that Rolls Royce ‘s annual unit sales would be about double current levels at 2,000 vehicles in 2010.