As we had mentioned earlier in the year, when BMW moved the majority of US bound 3 series production to outside of Germany, BMW is adapting to worldwide economic conditions in order to increase profitability.
We could further elaborate on this after several announcements yesterday by BMWAG but to put it simply: We can not analyze the situation any better than our dear friend Jonathan Spira. Jonathan is CEO and Chief Analyst of Basex Inc., as well as a key contributer to Roundel and the BMWCCA. His full analysis of the future BMW strategy can be found here: Shifting Gears: BMW to Cut Production and Raise Prices
We have seen this coming for sometime due to the down turn of the US economy and the strength of other emerging markets, what will be interesting to see is exactly how much of an increase we are talking and what future models will get scrapped.