BMW group have just released their latest sales stats, and they look good both for BMW (in particular the 1 and 5 series), but also of note are that sales of the MINI also continued to be very positive.
In the month just past, 21,463 MINIs were delivered to customers, 17.5% more than in April 2007 (18,264). For the year to April, 79,680 MINI were sold, which represents an increase of 22.1% (prev.yr.: 65,244).
Not bad going considering the economic slow down we keep hearing about, however the MINI brand may be gaining sales as people cut back from more expensive, and more thirsty brands to the smaller end of the market.
For the fourth year running BMW has won overall top prize at the 2008 International Engine of the Year Awards.
A panel of judges from around the globe awarded the top honour to the 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged petrol engine which powers the 1 Series, 3 Series and X6 in the 135i, 335i and X6 xDrive35i models respectively.
The 1.6 litre BMW/PSA unit found in the MINI scooped the top prize in the 1.4 to 1.8 litre engine capacity. Between them, BMW and MINI drove off with five category wins to dominate the 2008 awards.
Final results for overall IEotY 2008:
Engine - Points
BMW 3.0-litre twin-turbo (Various / 306hp) - 380
Volkswagen Group 1.4-litre TSI (Various / Various) - 287
Volkswagen Group 2.0-litre FSI (Various / 207hp) - 270
BMW 4.0-litre V8 (M3 / 420hp) - 241
BMW PSA 1.6-litre turbo (Various / 173hp) - 151
BMW 5.0-litre V10 (M5, M6 / 507hp) - 149
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