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.

BMW’s return to the DTM is going well. Actually, never mind, it’s going awesome. They’ve already won their first race.

The first race of the season may have gone over to Mercedes but the most recent one, the second one on this year’s calendar went to the Bavarians.

Bruno Spengler is the man we should all be thanking. The Canadian did just about everything by the book at Lausitzring.

That includes doing great in qualifying, starting from pole position and leading the race from start to the checkered flag.

The BMW M3 DTM racer behaved admirably but most of the effort can be put on the shoulders of the Canadian racing driver.

He was under some serious pressure from the Mercedes driven by Gary Paffett throughout the race yet managed to keep his composure.

Even at the end of the race the gap between them was just 1.019 seconds. Throughout the race this gap grew and shrunk by as much as 0.6 seconds.

The end was sealed after the chasing driver made a bit of a mistake on the last lap. Having braked a little late Paffett hit the kerb and lost some time that couldn’t be made up quickly.

At this point, the outcome of the race had been decided. BMW’s new win is a historic milestone for more than one reason.

It’s a the first for BMW after a 20 year hiatus but it’s also the 50th win the Bavarian company ever got in the home country’s own racing series.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW M3 wins at DTM once again appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.