BMW M Car sales keep growing

Now here’s a conundrum. Why do sales of BMW M Cars keep growing, when every other car maker (bar a couple of exceptions like Audi) are seeing sales decimated?

Is it because the cars are so good? After all, the M3, M5 and M6 variants do offer an enormous amount of fun and performance for the money. Or is it for some other reason?

I don’t suppose anyone but BMW could tell you categorically, but my guess is that the M cars are being bought by people looking to trade down. I know, they are not exactly cheap, but if you are pretty comfortably off, but are looking to tighten the purse strings a little, what would you do if you thought you couldn’t justify, or others would frown upon, your new Ferrari/Aston/Lamborghini/Bentley?

BMW M3 Coupe - Just part of the reason 'M' car sales are so buoyant

I know that top of my list (along with a couple of Audis) would be the BMW M Cars. After all, you have both the tin-top and cabriolet versions of the M3 and M6 to choose from (and coupé or saloon for the M3), and with the M5 you can even have an estate car – which means you can dump the Bentley and the Range Rover and make do with one car. Just a thought.

So how well are M Car sales doing? Well, BMW has reported that it sold more cars to the end of August than it did in the whole of 2007. And the three variants of the new M3 have certainly helped. But hang on a minute, though. Car sales, although slower, weren’t dropping off a cliff in August. True, but their sales in November 2008 were pushing 2,000 units, and their total sales for 2008 look likely to exceed 24,000. So, good cars though they are, my guess is they are attracting the down-traders in droves.

Still, who cares where the sales come from, as long as they come.