Woodcliff Lake, NJ - With 24,343 units (-21.3 percent), the BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported its best sales month so far this year. The BMW Group also reported a year-to-date sales volume of 160,044 vehicles, down 26.5 percent, compared to 217,821 vehicles sold in the first eight months of last year.

BMW Brand Sales
The BMW brand also had its best month this year with a total of 19,232 units (-24.5 percent). Year-to-date, BMW brand sales were down 28.6 percent to 129,176 vehicles compared to 180,889 vehicles sold in the same period of 2008.

"We are happy with BMW sales this month because it shows a strengthening of the premium market," said Jim O'Donnell, President of BMW of North America, LLC. "On the other hand, we always knew this month would be difficult in comparison to August 2008, because it was one of our strongest months on record."

BMW Certified Pre-Owned (CPO)
Sales of BMW's Certified Pre-Owned vehicles were slightly down 1.2 percent, to 9,342 CPO vehicles versus 9,453 vehicles reported in August a year ago. Year-to-date, CPO sales were up 10.1 percent, to 76,482 over the 69,437 reported in the same period of 2008.

MINI Brand Sales
MINI USA reported sales of 5,111 automobiles (-6.5 percent) making August MINI's fifth best month in its U.S. history dating back to 2002. Year-to-date, MINI USA also reported sales of 30,868 automobiles, a decrease of 16.4 percent, compared to the 36,932 cars reported in the first eight months of 2008.

"Cash for Clunkers brought some new, more pragmatic customers to MINI who would probably not have considered the brand without the program," said Jim McDowell, Vice President of MINI USA. "This is good and shows that for MINI, Cash for Clunkers was not just a 'pull ahead' of sales."

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