BMW M5 Sets World Drift Record

The legendary BMW M5 Sedan shattered the Guinness World Record for longest sustained drift at the BMW Performance Center near Greenville, South Carolina on Saturday, May 11, 2013, with BMW Performance Center Instructor Johan Schwartz behind the wheel. The record-breaking attempt generated ­­­over $20,000 in charitable donations benefitting The BMW Charity Pro-Am.

BMW Group Off to a Successful 2013

Official Release: The BMW Group continued to perform well in the first quarter of 2013. Group revenues totalled € 17,546 million (2012: € 18,293 million; -4.1%). Despite higher expenditure on new technologies, increased personnel expenses and challenging market conditions worldwide, the profit before financial result (EBIT) for the three-month period totalled € 2,039 million (2012: € 2,134 million; -4.5%), the second highest result ever achieved by the Group in a first quarter. The EBIT margin for the Group was 11.6%.

BMW Reports April Sales

“The solid April results are a good set-up for the months ahead as BMW transitions to model year 2014 with a range of new models coming to market,” said Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America. “Our dealers are reporting a sizeable increase in business and we expect to see even more in May and June.”

BMW US Sales Up 13% in March

With the exception of the 6 Series ad the recently refreshed Z4, BMWNA\'s sales gain are all due to the crossover category with the X3, X5, and X6 all posting healthy gains. Check out the full numbers after the break. Official Release: The BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported March sales of 33,149 vehicles, an increase of 11.2 percent from the 29,806 vehicles sold in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date, the BMW Group (BMW and MINI combined) is up 4.3 percent on sales of 78,957 in the first three months of 2013 compared to 75,729 in the same period in 2012.

BMW Cautiously Optimistic For 2013

After achieving a record-breaking year in 2012, the BMW Group\'s outlook for the current 12-month reporting period is cautiously optimistic, based on ambitious targets set amid a persisting difficult and volatile economic environment. \"We are aiming to achieve a further rise in unit sales in the current year and hence a new sales volume record\", stated Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, at the Annual Accounts Press Conference in Munich on Tuesday.

BMW Posts Best Worldwide February Sales Ever

Official Release: With 133,630 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand automobiles delivered worldwide (+4.7% / prev. yr. 127,638), the BMW Group achieved its best-ever February sales result. A record number of 256,929 (prev. yr. 239,802) vehicles have been delivered to customers since the start of the year – an increase of +7.1% compared with the same period last year.

BMW US Sales Flat for January

The big winner for February is (unsurprisingly) the X5 with sales up 22% over February of 2012. Also up (and hopefully stabilized) is the F10 5 Series. And finally it\'s nice to see the 6 Series, a car we\'ve reviewed very positively, doing well. On the downside are a couple surprises. The F30 3 Series is fully launched with xDrive yet it continues to show up and down figures month after month. We\'d guess this has something to do with the Coupe and Convertible being long in the tooth and the lack of incentives last month compared to 2012 when BMW was clearing out E90s. It also makes you wonder how BMW plans on reporting model sales when they move the 3er Coupe and Convertible to the 4 Series model classification.