Playing the sales games is something that BMW is clearly apt at but it’s also something they’re ready to share information about.

Within their company at least, things seem to be passed about. The corporate folks have just released some information on what their motorcycle division should do.

Knowing all this stuff, BMW Motorrad posted some clearly capable results with 2012 having gone out the window. December in particular was a success.

That’s not to say that the rest of the year was shoddy but it seems highly unlikely that a season reserved for cold and snow sells a lot of bikes.

Compared to December 2011, there was a 43.4% sales increase last month. Now that’s not something to sniff at, even if you’re BMW.

When analyzing the entire year from a global perspective, a growth factor of 2% remains. That translates into a record setting 106.358 motorcycles and maxi scooters sold.
The Husqvarna division also did brilliantly as it managed to up its game by 15.7% compared to what they have on record for 2011.

A few models did stand out among the two-wheeled runners of the company, these are the R1200GS, the F800GS and the S1000RR.

The F800GS was always a steady seller and the R1200GS’ air-cooled has sent into the garages of a lot of new owners.

Next year it’s going for liquid cooling so it might attract even more enthusiasts. Speaking of which, the S1000RR surprised by managing nearly 9000 units.

That really is remarkably, given the fact that we’re talking about a superbike that really loves hitting track days above anything else.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW Motorrad 2012 sales figures look brilliant appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

One figure had escaped us from 2012. Now that the figures have started to come in, the Bavarians are once again on top.

We’re talking about the sales in the luxury segment, of course. This is where BMW have beaten their closest rival Mercedes, at the end of last year.

The three pointed star had been trailing for quite some time and it even managed to get a couple of months in the lead but when it was all done, they had to settle for the silver.

BMW finished last year with 281.460 cars sold. This has put them ahead of Mercedes by a surprisingly small figure of 7.326 units.

The growth is remarkable since Bavaria’s finest have actually been lagging behind Mercedes at the end of November. Back then the gap was 1,849 units.

Eventually, the total for Mercedes came in at 274.134 units, a growth of 12% compared to the previous year. Pretty good, but compared to BMW’s sales rise of 14 percent, it’s a little laggy.

The December deciders of the new sales figures where the more popular sedans in the bunch. The BMW 5 Series and the E Class enjoyed much increased sales.

32 percent, or 6.984 units more where sold of the E Class and that accounted for 9% of the company’s growth. As to be expected, it was better for BMW.

It was actually much better since the F10 BMW 5 Series sales went up by a chunky 72 percent, being a considerable part of the 37.399 cars they moved last month.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW wins 2012 luxury sales race in US appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Unfortunately for those who hate their jobs or life, the apocalypse didn’t happen. Bringing further annoyance, the New Year then came and everybody is cheery about it.

If looking forward is not your thing, maybe you can take a breather in these videos from BMW as they’ve released a summary of what they achieved in 2012.

http://youtu.be/jznzR-Zhm0Y

It’s a pretty extensive list. In keeping themselves on top of the luxury market crowds, they’ve come up with so much three videos were needed.

The first one, as you could already see, tends to the new vehicles that were introduced throughout the year that has just ended.

The second video published by the Bavarians also speaks of ideas they’ve presented. This time however it’s the concepts and the design ideas behind them.

http://youtu.be/lTDdon3m2vI

Making things somewhat more in tone with the changing of the years and such, the historic moments of the previous 365 days.

We’ve had two momentous celebrations, one for the BMW Z1 and one for the creation of the M division. Neither can be over-appreciated.

On top of all this stuff, there’s a short description of all the sporting endeavors and collaborations our favorite brand has been involved in.

http://youtu.be/6zQl5iGwTl8

Like they say, 2012 was an amazing for BMW and, of course, for us, the fans of the brand, but since they promise 2013 is going to be better there’s just nothing to complain about.

Oh, and on top of that promise, it’s really nice to finally see how there’s finally a moment when we get to see the voice of BMW TV, Daryl Jackson.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW enters new year with a look back on 2012 appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Here’s something where the nearing of a new year doesn’t necessarily signify the beginning of something different, interesting better or… positive.

The owners of a 2012-2013 BMW S1000RR motorcycle will know exactly what I’m talking about since they’ve recently received (or are about to receive) a recall notice.

Their beloved two wheeled beast may have a bit of a problem with its kickstand. Nobody’d want to see it fall over, even without considering other issues.

A lose stand means that you might believe it’s actually fine initially and then find yourself hurt underneath it.

In somewhat more fortunate conditions, your S1000RR might fall over somebody’s car or who knows what, causing some genuine damage.

The affected bikes are the ones manufactured between September 2011 and December 2012, thus sold under 2012 or 2013 modelyears.

According to the recall notice, during the manufacturing process some of the bolts may not have been cleaned properly, thus resulting in loosening over time.

Owner forums seem to be aware of the problem for some time now. The number of complaints isn’t large and most of them consider this little more than an inconvenience.

The all-watching NHTSA isn’t really on the same page as they will not let the Bavarian manufacturer off this easy.

A recall is scheduled to begin as early as possible in January 2013. In the meantime, owners are recommended not to ride their bike.

That’s quite the bummer if you were planning to spend the few remaining days of the year on the road or track with your favorite two-wheeled toy.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post 2012-2013 BMW S1000RR recalled with kickstand issue appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

November hasn’t been with us for that long. Despite this, I’m willing to bet you’ve heard at least 10 stories about financial problems so far this month.

Sure enough, there are plenty of problems out there and there are some serious bits of number crunching that need to be done before everything straightens out.

This is an effect that has washed away with most of the dreams and ambitions of the automotive industry for this and the following couple of years or so.

BMW meanwhile seem to not be affected by the situation as the Bavarians are telling us they don’t plan to change their original prediction.

Given their latest sales results, it seems that there’s just no point in telling people they’re not hoping to grow or turn certain profits anymore.

Currently they’re on the rise, they’re still keeping the opposition in the rear view mirror and there’s no point in adapting to the economy just to lose out to them.

BMW Chief Financial Officer, Friedrich Eichiner, went on record as talking about these results and predictions and there was something impressive to consider.

It seems that he considers the European market still in it. The company’s very diversified lineup of products, will have adapted to the small market quite well.

In fact, he thinks that BMW will do so well against the stress of the European market, that he genuinely expects it to grow.

That sounds remarkable and since most analysts reckon it’s a big mistake, that kind of sounds like a bit of good news for me. It’s rare to see optimism these days.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW will not change financial predictions for 2012 appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

October ended sufficiently long ago for the sales numbers to be available for this month that passed. In short, things really look good for BMW..

If it’s detail that worries you, it shouldn’t be a major concern since things look pretty good when under the microscope as well.

Unsurprisingly, it’s once again the Asian market that really put the Bavarians over the top in terms of units shifted in October.

Since the Japanese car makers are facing a bit of a crisis in China, German car makers, our favorite included, got a bit of an unexpected boost.

2012’s October saw BMW sell 157.618 units overall, which, by comparison to last year’s 139.284 units means the increase was 13.2 percent.

When doing the sums for the entire year, the growth so far is 8.8%. Not only is that nothing to snuff at, it makes for a brand new record overall.

The first 10 months of 2012 saw BMW manage to sell a total of 1.493.153 units which is somewhat nearer to the round figure of 1.5 million.

Certainly happens when compared to last year’s 1.371.903 units. Ian Robertson, Member of BMW’s Board of Management was the first to talk about the result.

There’s a natural moment of joy with the results and particularly the growth, but he didn’t want to say things are easy.

Yes, China, and Asia in general, offered a good source of sales, but so did the Americas whereas Europe is still considerably lagging behind its brethren continents.

Ah well, I suppose we can’t all be doing as well as BMW.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW posts October sales results appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

2012 came with a lot of good news for the BMW enthusiast. Be it new releases, new technology or new ideas, the Bavarians delivered fully.

They even went on with their tradition of completely mocking the sales performance of the rivals and showing them once again how it’s done.

Few of these listed have struck such a cord with the brand faithfuls more than the decision to return to the DTM touring car championship.

The German event differs from other touring car series because of the high manufacturer involvement and high power outputs.

With the return of BMW to the sport well under way, they used a really outrageous version of the BMW M3 that has a front end which is reminiscent of the F30 3 Series.

This weekend saw the last race of the year take place at the Hockenheimring was the one which decided the 2012 DTM championship.

That title went to BMW’s AC Schnitzer team, the manufacturer title went to our favorite car maker but the driver’s title was the most disputed one of all.

Eventually it went to Bruno Spengler. The Canadian driver had been pretty unfortunate in the past as he had lost the title four times at the last minute.

Thankfully, this time, in the maiden year of BMW’s return to the sport he managed to really put up a show. He started in third yet managed to get by his major rival and his team-mate to make a quick run for the win.

That win came just 1.1 seconds apart from the rival, so it wasn’t easy, but the result is undeniable.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post F30 BMW M3 racer wins 2012 DTM championship appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

When BMW unveils anything, we expect it to be a car. There’s a good chance the unveiling is a new motorcycle and occasionally a bike, but that’s about it.

This time however, they’ve unveiled a new building. Further making things unusual, it’s not a state of the art factory or some incredible dealership.

It’s called the Olympic Park Pavilion and it actually comes close to the latter but you can’t genuinely buy a car there so it’s still hard to pinpoint.

The very particular looking new building is quite the architectural achievement, similarly to the way the cars it houses are engineering achievements.

Obviously, the cars inside are BMW (in other words, the world’s) finest. The upcoming BMW i8 hybrid supercar concept is there for a kick off.

It’s there alongside its little brother, the i3 hybrid hatchback and the more familiar F30 3 Series, now available in Touring form as well and some other models.

There’s no BMW without the 5 Series so a couple of F10 models are there as well as the recently updated 7 Series limousine.

In the meantime, some special display areas and quite a bit of floor space have been reserved in order to showcase the driving pleasure of the Bavarian brand’s products as well as the EfficientDynamics projects.

What does this have to do with the 2012 London Olympic Games? Nothing really, but as BMW is one of the major sponsors of the event, they just went to town on the idea.

We don’t see anybody complaining and we’re certainly not going to cry about the Bavarians showing off their products.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Olympic Park Pavilion for London 2012 Games unveiled by BMW appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Offered as the stylish member of the newest BMW M Performance diesel lineup, the 2012 X6 M50d got its Geneva debut.

It’s not really one of my favorite choices of anything with a BMW badge on the front but the X6 M50d does make itself interesting.

If you’re like me, not a big fan of the looks, you can’t deny the impressive effect the figures of that new diesel engine has.

The very lovable 3.0 liter straight six tri-turbo version of the company’s N57 engine develops 381 horsepower and 550 lb-ft of torque.

This sort of performance is not only enough for the 2012 BMW X6 M50d to shift around its bulk, it can also deliver some impressive fuel economy and performance while at it.

First, the performance. 0 to 62 acceleration takes a mere 5.3 seconds and its so fast at the top end that it had to be electronically limited to 155 mph.

The company’s 8-speed automatic transmission has something to do with that and the xDrive all wheel drive system ha something to say in keeping all that torque in check.

As for fuel economy, I will admit, it’s not exactly going to give the Toyota Prius any worries but for a bus-like coupe like the 2012 BMW X6 M50d it’s quite amazing.

On the EU test cycle the Bavarian company claims it’s going to average at least 36.7 mpg Imperial or 30.6 mpg U.S.

Like I said, not a worry for the Toyota Prius but then again, the little hybrid doesn’t have nearly 400 horsepower available on tap.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post 2012 BMW X6 M50d gets Geneva debut appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Humans make mistakes and as much as we like to think of the guys over at BMW being gods, they have gone wrong once or twice.

This time however, regarding the 2012 BMW X5 in xDrive 35i spec, a mistake has sneaked into that will lead to a recall. The mistake or the problem aren’t really that important but the number of cars recalled is.

It seems that ONLY SIX cars are affected by the problem and BMW will start notifying X5 owners as soon as possible and that they’ve already wrote a letter to the NHTSA.

I’m willing to bet the authority, no matter how serious they have to be had a bit of a giggle when opening that letter and reading the number of affected vehicles.

Getting into the problem, it seems that something within the automatic transmission of these 2012 BMW X5 xDrive35i SAVs doesn’t work properly and yet may appear to have engaged Park.

There’s a bit of a risk of a roll away when owners leave their cars which could lead to accidents, therefore the injuries and deaths that could then occur so the matter is actually serious.

These affected 2012 BMW X5 models have been built between December 19 and 21 of last year.

The fix for the situation will be done free of charge at local BMW dealers but it may take a bit of time. Apparently the only way to ensure this problem goes away is to replace the transmission.

Even if its small, this recall should bring quite the cost to the Bavarians as transmission swaps don’t come cheap. Particularly when they’re as modern as the eight speed 2012 BMW X5 has.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW X5 xDrive35i gets small recall appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.