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Originally Posted by afadeev
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Originally Posted by Rekla
What is the definition of a 'sale'?
BMW NA stocks up dealer inventory - cars that sit on dealer lots and at that point are 'owned' (read financed) by the dealers - that can be considered a sale from BMW NA to dealers and a reflection of the numbers you see posted.
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The is partly true in the sense that "sale" counts when dealer takes on the inventory. Alas, BMW NA can't force dealers to buy the cars they don't want. If i3's weren't selling, dealer's would not be ordering new ones from BMWN NA to stock them.
By the end of 2015, dealers had ~2,000 i3s on hand.
Given the 11,024 i3s sold throughout the year, that's about 2.2 months worth of inventory, on average. That's roughly inline with industry averages (see page 13):
http://www.nadafrontpage.com/upload/...DAData2014.pdf
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Originally Posted by Rekla
I always wondered about the 'inflated' sales numbers BMW NA posts - are those title registrations or more like production numbers of units delivered to dealer lots. My local dealers seem to have a ton of i3s in 'stock'...
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Official statistics count model maker 'sale' when a car is moved off BMW NA balance sheet to that of the dealer. If you assume ~2 month average inventory holding time, the 'sale' would, on average, precede title (end owner) registration by ~2 months.
A few years ago MB USA complained that it lost US luxury sales title to BMW based on dealer 'sales', but was a few hundred ahead based on end owner registrations. However, both numbers where within a few thousands of each other relative to ~350K vehicles sold by each.
That is NOT to say that the numbers are 'inflated'.
No dealership would remain in business without inventory, and managing and replenishing it (intelligently) is their responsibility. If they are ordering more i3's for their inventory, it's because either they are observing or anticipating greater demand.
Inventory costs money, and no independent business (as all dealers are in the US) would waste money by holding excess inventory.
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Yep and after a few weeks the dealers start to pay interest on those vehicles. So they don't over stock if they can help it.
Certain cars they won't even stock on the lots because the sales are so few that they wait for the customers to order it before the dealer will even entertain getting it.
Theirs a Cadillac dealer near me that won't stock the ELR Cadillac because the last one they had took over 9 months to sell it. They can't give them away. At least where I am. come to think of it .... Anybody seen an ELR on the road? I've seen more i3 and not one ELR.